Russian ships' access to EU ports may be restricted.

Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin says his European Union counterparts will in February and March discuss new sanctions against Russia over an attack on Ukrainian navy boats near the Kerch Strait.

"There are several ideas I will deliberately not mention. They will be discussed by the EU foreign ministers in February and March. These may be very important decisions," Klimkin said at a press conference summing up the results of Ukraine's diplomacy in 2018, according to an UNIAN correspondent.

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According to him, Ukraine is currently discussing with the EU "what could have an impact on Russia" in connection with an act of aggression near the Kerch Strait.

"There are two approaches here: one approach concerns personal sanctions against those who organized all this and who gave commands, but the EU is right that all the military command of Russia is already under sanctions – who else could be added here? Or [the second approach] is that we will also work on the logic of restricting access [to EU ports] for Russian ships assigned to the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea," he said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Russian special forces in November 2018 attacked and seized three Ukrainian navy boats with 24 Ukrainian sailors on board. The boats were heading from the Ukrainian port of Odesa on the Black Sea to the Ukrainian port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov via the Kerch Strait. The sailors, who were taken from Russian-occupied Crimea to detention centers in Moscow, are now facing trial. They hold themselves not guilty and consider themselves to be prisoners of war. Next hearings on their cases are scheduled for April 24 and April 26.