Russia repeals Azov Sea treaty with Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a law repealing the cooperation treaty with Ukraine over sharing interests in Azov Sea and Kerch Strait.

Russian Presidency website reported that the president inked the law to revoke the agreement, signed by Moscow and Kyiv in 2004, on sharing fish resources in the sea. It was endorsed by the Duma on June 1 and the Federal Council on the 7th of the same month.

The presidency said Ukraine no longer has access to the sea and the strait after annexation of the regions, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhia and Luhansk, to Russia last September.

Ukrainian authorities annulled the treaty on February 24 in line with a decision by the parliament that became effective as of March 25, 2023.

Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement that Ukrainian forces continued over the past 24 hours attacking Russian forces south of Donetsk and suburbs of Bakhmut, a cited that turned into a major battlefield between the two foes.

The Russian forces repelled the Ukrainian troops, knocking out a number of tanks and killing 655 military personnel, a ministry spokesperson said.

Russian and Ukrainian forces have been locked up in fighting at several axes on Ukrainian territories since the war started in February 2022. Moscow launched a wide-scale offensive accusing Ukraine of plotting with its adversaries in the West.

Western powers have been supplying the Ukrainian with military and financial aid but vowed no deploy NATO troops to partake in the fighting against the Russians. According to estimates, some 17,000 people have been killed in the war that also has inflicted massive damage throughout the nation, a main cereal source for many countries.

Source: Kuwait News Agency