Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma cut short a visit to Latin America yesterday and flew home to deal with a dispute with Russia over control of the Kerch strait

Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma cut short a visit to Latin America yesterday and flew home to deal with a dispute with Russia over control of the Kerch strait, a shipping route between the Azov and Black seas. Mr Kuchma and Viktor Yanukovich, the prime minister, who postponed his own visit to the Baltics, plan to fly today to Tuzla island, a tiny Ukrainian outpost nearer to Russia's side of the strait whose ownership has been called into question. Russian ships pay a fee to Ukraine to pass through the Kerch strait, which Ukraine regards as its own since the navigable channel passes between Crimea and Tuzla island. In late September, Russia started building an earth bridge across the shallow 4km gap between its Taman peninsula and Tuzla island, drawing furious protests from Ukrainian politicians, some of whom accuse Russia of planning an "occupation". Russia's move on Tuzla has taken many in Ukraine by surprise, coming only weeks after Mr Kuchma and Russian president Vladimir Putin signed an important economic union treaty together with the presidents of Belarus and Kazakhstan. Mr Kuchma's allies in parliament, usually pro-Russian, are now saying they may refuse to ratify the treaty. On Monday, Mr Kuchma called an emergency session of his National Security Council, which includes military chiefs, and ordered them not to allow the bridge to come within 150 metres of the island, where Ukraine draws its sea border. But construction stopped yesterday. Reports said the bridge had come within 100 metres of the Ukraine border. Ukraine's air force began holding ostensibly unrelated exercises in a nearby area yesterday.