Leonid Osavoliuk
Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Chargé d’Affaires of Ukraine in the Russian Federation (2005–6), Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
DOI:
Abstract. The article provides a detailed account of the preparation and course of negotiations between Ukraine and the russian federation on the delimitation of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, which took place in December 2003. It highlights the role and pressure exerted by A. Orel regarding the author’s visa as a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine to accept the russian version of the draft agreement between Ukraine and the russian federation on cooperation in the use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. The article specifies several amendments to the russian draft agreement proposed by the author.
It outlines the negotiations with the russian side in the city of Kerch. The author analyses the efforts of A. Orel and V. Medvedchuk to convince him to sign the russian version of the draft agreement to avoid derailing the negotiation process. Additionally, he emphasises President of Ukraine L. Kuchma’s stance, asserting that he insisted on requiring a visa from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine before signing any document.
Following complex negotiations, Ukraine successfully obtained russia’s agreement to delimit the Sea of Azov along the state borderline while reaching a ‘vague’ formulation regarding a future agreement concerning the Kerch Strait. Furthermore, the negotiators established freedom of navigation for military and commercial vessels of both states in the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov and permitted navigation for commercial vessels of third states.
The article highlights that after signing the agreement, russia started delaying and blocking negotiations on the delimitation of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. Moreover, considering the lack of prospects for russia’s ratification of the agreement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine prepared a draft Law of Ukraine ‘On the Internal Waters, Territorial Sea, and Adjacent Zone of Ukraine’, which proposed declaring Ukraine’s territorial sea in the Sea of Azov to be 12 nautical miles wide. However, the Verkhovna Rada never advanced this draft law to a second reading due to aggressive opposition from russia and the influence of the fifth column in Ukraine.
The article stresses the need to return to this draft law, the adoption of which, given its compliance with international maritime law, would serve as a significant counterbalance to russia’s ‘legislation’ regarding the inclusion of Ukrainian territories into the russian federation.
Keywords: russian-Ukrainian negotiations, Sea of Azov, Kerch Strait, international maritime law, draft law.