Kerch Strait Dark Zone
The Black Sea's gateway to the Sea of Azov — and one of the darkest, most militarised chokepoints on the map. There is no live map here, because there are effectively no public AIS signals to show. That absence is itself the sanctions story.
Why there's no live map here
Most of our chokepoint pages open with a live map of every vessel in the waterway right now. This one does not — and the reason is the whole point.
Vessels transiting the Kerch Strait routinely disable their AIS transponders and “go dark”. The waterway is a militarised, Russian-controlled restricted zone, so there is no reliable public position feed to plot. Plotting a handful of stray or spoofed signals would misrepresent what is actually happening on the water.
And that deliberate absence of signal is exactly the behaviour sanctions screeners watch for. A ship that switches off its transponder as it approaches a restricted, sanctioned-adjacent zone isn't invisible to compliance — the gap in the track is the flag.
Can I see live ships in the Kerch Strait?
Not reliably. Vessels in and around the strait frequently operate with AIS switched off, and the waterway is a militarised, Russian-controlled restricted zone. Public vessel-tracking coverage there is minimal — which is why this page carries no live map. If you need to check a specific ship, screen it by name or IMO against the sanctions lists rather than relying on its position.
Why the Kerch Strait matters
The Kerch Strait is the only connection between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Crimean Peninsula to the west from Russia's Taman Peninsula to the east. It is spanned by the Crimean (Kerch) Bridge, opened in 2018. The channel is narrow — about 3.5 km at its narrowest — and shallow, which constrains the vessels that can pass and makes it easy to control.
Since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the strait has been Russian- controlled and heavily militarised. Russia has restricted and at times blockaded passage to Ukrainian Sea of Azov ports such as Mariupol and Berdiansk. It sits at the centre of the war and of the sanctions response, which is why the shipping that moves through it is so often deliberately hidden.
What "going dark" looks like
- AIS switched off — a vessel stops broadcasting its position, so it drops off public tracking feeds entirely.
- Gaps in the track — a ship's history shows it disappearing before a restricted zone and reappearing after, with the transit itself missing.
- Spoofed or manipulated positions — broadcast coordinates that don't match a vessel's real location, designed to obscure a port call.
- Ship-to-ship transfers — cargo moved between vessels away from port to break the paper trail.
None of these patterns show up as a neat dot on a map. They show up as absence — and that is what a screener is trained to notice. To check a specific vessel's status, use the Strait Up Maritime app.
Geography
The Kerch Strait links the Black Sea to the south with the enclosed, shallow Sea of Azov to the north. It runs between the Crimean Peninsula on its western side and Russia's Taman Peninsula on its eastern side, narrowing to roughly 3.5 km at its tightest point. Because it is both narrow and shallow, and now spanned by the Crimean Bridge, it functions as a single controlled gateway rather than an open sea lane.
About the data — and its absence
AIS is broadcast openly by vessels under the SOLAS V/19 carriage requirement, and for most waterways we aggregate that signal across multiple providers and plot it live. For the Kerch Strait we deliberately do not publish a live map, because the available public signal is too sparse and too easily manipulated to represent honestly. Where a vessel has chosen to go dark, no aggregator can show you where it truly is.
Sanctions and trade restrictions in this region change and depend on the issuing authority. Nothing on this page is legal advice or a compliance determination — always verify any specific vessel, cargo, port call or counterparty against the relevant sanctions authority before relying on it.
Frequently asked questions
Can I see live ships in the Kerch Strait?
Not reliably. Vessels in and around the Kerch Strait frequently operate with their AIS transponders switched off, and the waterway is a militarised, Russian-controlled restricted zone. As a result there is minimal public vessel-tracking coverage there, which is why this page carries no live map. That deliberate absence of signal — ships going dark — is itself the behaviour that sanctions screeners watch for.
Why does the Kerch Strait matter?
The Kerch Strait is the only connection between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Crimean Peninsula to the west from Russia's Taman Peninsula to the east. It is spanned by the Crimean (Kerch) Bridge, opened in 2018. Since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it has been a focal point of the war and of sanctions, with passage to Ukrainian Sea of Azov ports such as Mariupol and Berdiansk restricted and at times blockaded.
Is the Kerch Strait sanctioned?
The strait itself is not "sanctioned" as a place. However, Crimea and many Russian operations connected to the Sea of Azov ports are subject to sanctions and trade restrictions imposed by various governments. Whether any specific vessel, cargo, port call or counterparty is sanctioned depends on the facts and the issuing authority — always verify against the relevant sanctions authority before relying on it.
Other chokepoints we cover
The Kerch Strait is one of several maritime chokepoints under continuous observation across Strait Up Maritime. The waterways below each have a live vessel map — the Kerch Strait is the exception, for the reasons set out above.