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The intentional provocation executed by Kiev saw three Ukrainian naval vessels seized by Russia. The vessels were intentionally violating protocol for passing through the Strait - protocol previously agreed upon by Kiev and previously observed by Ukrainian naval vessels.
The extent to which Ukraine was aware of these protocols and the 2003 agreement that put them in place includes entire events organized in Ukraine by NATO-sponsored "think tanks" discussing the necessity to "rip them up" and attempt to assert greater control over the current joint-use of the Sea of Azov.
In the wake of this incident - predictable calls are being made to use it as a pretext to expand NATO even further east, with senior American Foreign Policy Council fellow and former professor at the US Army War College Stephen Blank declaring the need for the US to "lease" Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov, patrol the sea with US warships, all while committing to the "full-fledged" arming of Ukrainian forces.
Blank's commentary - published in The Hill in a piece titled, "Russia's attack on Ukraine is an act of war," predicates an anti-Russian narrative and NATO's eastward expansion into Ukraine upon a number of blatant falsehoods.
Comment: Rhetoric is becoming overly obnoxious. Demands are more than outrageous. Hutzpah is off the charts. Are the neocons agitating for a confrontation, power-tripping for the next world war? Or just a flimsy, last hurrah cover-up for the rapid and assured decline of America.