President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Wednesday held phone conversations with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts over the recent tension between the countries in the Black Sea, according to Turkish presidential sources.
In phone calls with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko, Erdoğan expressed his concerns over the tension in Sea of Azov.
Turkish president also underlined the importance of resolving the problems via diplomacy.
Kremlin also announced the phone call between Erdoğan and Putin in an online statement.
The imposition of martial law is not affecting Ukrainian grain shipments from ports on the Azov Sea so far and if necessary they can be diverted to the Black Sea, Ukraine's acting agriculture minister told Reuters on Wednesday.More broadly, the prospects for grain exports from the Azov Sea are unclear at this point, Maksym Martyniuk said in messaged comments.Ukraine began martial law in some areas of the country on Wednesday, imposed after Russia captured three Ukrainian vessels and their crews over the weekend in what Kiev fears could be a precursor to a full-scale Russian invasion.Among the biggest grain exporters in the world, Ukraine accuses Russia of trying to impose a de facto blockade on its ports on the Azov Sea, including Mariupol and Berdyansk, which export grain and steel and import coal.'Put Putin in his place', Ukrainian ambassador tells GermanyWhen asked if the start of martial law had had an impact on grain exports, Martyniuk said: "Not yet."He said exports would be diverted to the Black Sea if they could not move freely on the Azov Sea. "The outlook is unclear," he added.Several traders told Reuters that buyers were refusing supplies from the Azov Sea ports. One predicted there would be few or no trades out of Berdyansk and Mariupol in the near future because buyers do not want to take shipments from those locations."In general there is not much panic in the market, as Azov port exports only affect about 4 to 5 percent of total grain exports out of Ukraine," the trader said.NATO backs Ukraine amid crisis with RussiaMariupol port said it was operating normally with three ships loaded, one of them delivering steel products to Spain and two others delivering steel and slabs to the United Kingdom."Vessels are still moving to Mariupol and Berdyansk. There is no cancellation of operations and traders only add a few days for the expected delay," a Ukraine-based trader said.Sunday's clash has raised the possibility of new punitive sanctions being imposed on Russia by the European Union. Russia says such sanctions would solve nothing and blamed Ukraine for the incident.Ukraine's 2018 grain harvest had reached 68.2 million tonnes by Nov. 27, a record high. Exports are expected to reach an all-time high of 47 million tonnes in the 2018/19 July-June season. 
Ukraine says martial law not affecting Azov Sea grain exports but outlook unclear
The two presidents discussed the situation over the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation in a strait near Crimea, according to a statement published on the Kremlin website.
They also discussed the implementation of the memorandum on Idlib, signed in September, and some aspects of the bilateral relations, it said.
On Sunday, Russia seized two Ukrainian navy ships and a navy tugboat along with 23 crew members off Crimea, accusing Kiev of entering its waters and provoking a conflict.
It said the vessels had ignored calls to stop, sparking military action.
Ukraine's top diplomat in Germany urged Berlin and other Western states to punish Russia by extending sanctions, banning energy imports and putting the NordStream 2 gas pipeline on hold after Moscow seized three Ukrainian ships near Crimea.The ambassador even raised the possibility of sending German marines to the region.Several senior European politicians have raised the possibility of new sanctions against Russia after the incident on Sunday, which the West fears could ignite a wider conflict near Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014."Germany must take a clear line ... and put (Russian President Vladimir) Putin in his place," ambassador Andrij Melnyk told German radio on Wednesday. "Everything is at stake.""The club of sanctions should be wielded quickly .... There should be a complete ban on gas and oil imports from Russia, NordStream 2 must be put on ice," he said, adding only such measures could stop Putin's "brutal, hoooligan-like" behaviour.Russia to deploy new S-400 missiles on CrimeaUkraine is already nervous about the prospect of the NordStream 2 pipeline which increases Europe's reliance on Russian gas, fearing it will lose out on transit revenues."In military terms, what can you do? Sending German marines to the coast of Crimea ... could help stop an escalation. If you are there, Russians have fewer possibilities to act so brutally," he said."If you don't do anything, you can barely hope that this will come to an end," said Melnyk.So far, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for de-escalation and dialogue.The foreign minister of Austria, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, has said any extension of sanctions imposed on Russia over its actions in Ukraine would depend on further information about the incident and how the two sides behave.Russia opened fire on the Ukrainian boats, then seized them and their crews on Sunday. Moscow and Kiev have tried to pin blame on each other. Russian court jails 12 Ukrainian sailors for 2 months
'Put Putin in his place', Ukrainian ambassador tells Germany
Russia intervened as the Ukrainian ships were relocating from the Black Sea port of Odessa to the port of Mariupol in the Sea of Azov.
Videos appeared online showing a Russian coast guard vessel ramming the Ukrainian navy tugboat in the Kerch Strait.
Ukraine also accused Russian warships of opening fire on the ships, asserting that crew members were wounded and the vessels were seized by Russia.
Russia and Ukraine have been at loggerheads since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea after a controversial referendum.
Turkey, as well as the UN General Assembly, viewed the annexation as illegal.
Russia said on Wednesday it would send more of its advanced S-400 surface-to-air missile systems to Crimea and a Reuters reporter saw a Russian warship deploying nearby as tensions with Ukraine rose over Moscow's seizure of Ukrainian navy ships.Russia has steadily poured new military hardware into Crimea since it annexed it from Ukraine in 2014, turning it into what Kremlin-backed media have called a fortress.Moscow's announcement about new missiles follows its seizure of three Ukrainian naval vessels and their crews on Sunday over what it said was their illegal entry into Russian waters, something Ukraine denies.Kiev introduced martial law in parts of the country after the incident, saying it feared a possible Russian invasion.In phone calls, Erdoğan urges Putin, Poroshenko to reach diplomatic solutionThe episode risks derailing a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 in Argentina later this week. Trump said on Tuesday that he might cancel the meeting due to the incident, but the Kremlin said on Wednesday it thought it was still on.Vadim Astafyev, a spokesman for Russia's southern military district, was cited by Russian news agencies on Wednesday as saying that a new battalion of S-400 missiles would be delivered to Crimea soon and become operational by the end of the year.The deployment is likely to have been long-planned, but the timing of the announcement appeared designed to send a message to Ukraine and the West that Russia is serious about defending what it regards as its own territory and waters.Crimea already hosts three battalions of the anti-aircraft missile systems which have a range of up to 400 km (250 miles) allowing Russia to control large swaths of the skies above the Black Sea.Ukraine says martial law not affecting Azov Sea grain exports but outlook unclearMINESWEEPERThe new deployment would allow it to increase its air defence coverage area.The United States has previously said that Russia's deployment of the missile systems to Crimea is "not good".Separately, a Reuters correspondent in Crimea on Wednesday observed a Russian navy minesweeper ship, the Vice-Admiral Zakharin, heading for the Sea of Azov, which is used by both Ukraine and Russia and is an area of growing tensions.Citing sources in Ukraine's ruling circles, Russia's Izvestia newspaper reported that Kiev had been trying to persuade Washington - so far unsuccessfully - to open a military base in Ukraine.'Put Putin in his place', Ukrainian ambassador tells GermanyReuters could not independently confirm the report.Later on Wednesday a Crimean court is due to order the detention of nine of the 24 captured Ukrainian sailors - including senior Ukrainian naval officers and at least one member of Ukraine's SBU intelligence agency.A court in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, on Tuesday ordered the other 15 Ukrainian sailors to be detained for two months pending a possible trial.All of the sailors face jail terms of up to six years if found guilty of what Moscow says was a plot to illegally cross the Russian border by trying to pass through the Russian-controlled Kerch Strait on Sunday without advance notice and ignoring calls to stop.Ukraine says its ships did nothing wrong and have every right to use the strait, the only gateway to the Sea of Azov from the Black Sea, without Russian permission.
Russia to deploy new missiles to Crimea as Ukraine tensions rise