About 140 ships were awaiting Russian permission to pass through the Kerch Strait as of Friday morning, Ukraine’s border service reports. Delays cost $10-50,000 a day per ship, Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan told French Minister of Transport Elisabeth Borne at a meeting in Paris. Noting that 20% of the ships have EU owners, he said: “As a result, European taxpayers have to pay extra for Russia deciding to ignore the norms of international law.” Calling for concrete EU/US support to restore freedom of the seas, he warned: “If the Russians get away with the situation in the Kerch Strait, next year they will do the same in the Black and the Baltic Seas.”