Oleg Kashin, a Russian columnist and political analyst, wrote in the online publication Republic that the expansion of the shooting into the Sea of Azov seemed more like an extension of the endless skirmishing in eastern Ukraine than the start of any full-fledged war.
“The Sea of Azov is the most convenient space for the most spectacular political wrestling,” he wrote, calling it a “tiny reservoir” that nobody had ever considered a real sea.
He wrote that the sea belongs “only to Russia and Ukraine, and no third-party interests will be affected, even if tomorrow the entire surface of the Sea of Azov goes up in flames.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/26/world/europe/russia-ukraine-kerch-strait.html