The United States must act cautiously to defuse the new crisis in the Sea of Azov.

The last several years in U.S.-Russia relations have witnessed a plethora of destabilizing actions on both sides, ranging from bloody skirmishes in proxy wars to the collapse of bedrock arms control treaties, and from the conduct of massive military exercises to allegations of widespread cyber-attack. For those who thought the relationship could not get any worse, there is the new Kerch Strait Crisis, which has moved the proverbial “doomsday clock” that much closer to midnight.