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He said this at a press conference ahead of the meetings of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on Tuesday, answering questions from an Ukrinform correspondent.

"I welcome the return of the seized Ukrainian ships. This is something Russia should have done a long time ago, and they [the Russians] didn't have the right to seize the ships. So I welcome that they are now being returned. This is also in line with Russia's international obligations. I think it is a good thing also because, hopefully, it can help to make some progress in implementing the Minsk agreements and help also the efforts of the Normandy format to make progress to find a sustainable political solution to the crisis in Ukraine," Stoltenberg said.

He said he expected NATO foreign ministers to address the issue at a meeting on Wednesday, November 20.

Stoltenberg recalled that the North Atlantic Council had recently visited Ukraine, and in Kyiv, it had a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky. The permanent representatives of the NATO member states also visited Odesa, where NATO is helping to build the Naval Academy to strengthen naval education.

"It just shows that NATO Allies provide strong political support to Ukraine, but also practical support on cyber, on logistics, on command and control. [...] We will continue to do that. And we also a very clear message that Russia must allow freedom of navigation in the Sea of Azov and, of course, in the Kerch Strait," Stoltenberg said.

On November 18, Russia handed over to Ukraine in the Black Sea waters the Nikopol and Berdiansk small armored artillery boats and the Yany Kapu tugboat, which Russian security forces fired on and seized on November 25, 2018.

The next summit with the participation of the leaders of Ukraine, France, Germany, and Russia (the so-called Normandy Four) is to take place in Paris on December 9.



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