This dispute is not along the two nations' land border north of the Sea of Azov,
which is fully delimited, but is in the shallow waters of the Strait of Kerch,
through which the Sea of Azov communicates with the Black Sea. The Kerch
Peninsula west of the strait is Ukrainian, and the Taman Peninsula east of the
strait is Russian. A Russian local government is building a "dam" (more like a
dike) across part of the strait from the Taman Peninsula and wants to connect it
to Tuzla Island in the strait. That island was connected to the Russian
mainland until 1925, but it was assigned to the Soviet Ukraine in 1954. The
Ukrainians are afraid that Russia will claim the island so that they can connect
their dike to it.

For a thorough exegesis of the issue, go to this Google cache of an article
otherwise no longer available: http://tinyurl.com/rrul . Scroll about a
quarter of the way down the long page to the topic "Ukraine."

Lowell G. McManus
Leesville, Louisiana, USA

----- Original Message -----
From: "m06079" <barbaria_longa@...>
To: <BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2003 10:52 AM
Subject: [BoundaryPoint] new wrinkles dept

> yikes ukraine braces for a border riot as russian dam
> construction advances in slo mo invasion of their common
> disputed area
> http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2003/10/21/50660.html
>
> i assume any seaward tripoints here are still indeterminate
> & are the actual prize of the contest
>
> but perhaps it will end as a land sale rather than just a land grab
>
> anyway can anyone please show the full area in question
> & particularly locate the landward de facto tripoint
> where their agreed ruua border splits into disagreement
>
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>