MOSCOW – Moscow’s Lefortovsky District Court has extended the period of arrest of 24 Ukrainian sailors, arrested following the incident near the Kerch Strait in the fall of 2018, until late July.
“The court ruled to extend the period of the defendants’ custody until July 24 and July 26, 2019,” the court’s press service told Interfax on April 17.
As reported, the court hearings were held in camera as requested by the prosecutors “in order to protect the secret of the preliminary investigation protected by the law.”
“Our lawyers will appeal against the rulings to extend the period of arrest of every prisoner of war within the three-day deadline established by the law,” lawyer Nikolai Polozov, the coordinator of the sailors’ defense team, said following the hearings.
On Nov. 25, 2018, Russian border guards used weapons to stop three Ukrainian naval vessels, the Yany Kapu tug and the Berdyansk and the Nikopol armored gunboats, which were traveling from Odesa to Mariupol in the Kerch Strait. The vessels were escorted to Kerch.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) said the ships had entered Russia’s territorial waters on orders from Kyiv and described the incident as an act of provocation coordinated by two Ukrainian Security Service officers. Russia also said that Kyiv had not duly notified it that naval vessels were planning to pass through the Kerch Strait.
According to the FSB, ships were equipped, in particular, with artillery weapons ready to be used.
Kyiv called the border guards’ actions unlawful and accused Moscow of violating the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and a treaty between Ukraine and Russia on cooperation in using the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait.
Courts in Simferopol and Kerch remanded the 22 sailors and two Ukrainian Security Service officials in custody. In late November they were transferred to Moscow.
The Ukrainians are charged with “conspiracy by a group of persons or an organized group to illegally cross the border using violence or the threat to use violence.” If found guilty, they could face up to six years in prison.
Kyiv calls the detained sailors prisoners of war. The Russian authorities say they cannot be regarded as POWs, as they are charged with a crime and Russia and Ukraine are not in a state of war or military conflict.
The arrestees include captain of the Yany Kapu tug Oleh Melnychuk, commander of the gunboat Nikopol Bohdan Nebylytsia, commander of the gunboat Berdiansk Roman Mokriak, commander of the logistics vessel battalion of the Ukrainian Southern Naval Base Volodymyr Lisoviy, Ukrainian Security Service officers Andriy Drach and Vasyl Soroka, crewmembers Denis Hrytsenko, Yuriy Bezyazychny, Viacheslav Zinchenko, Yevhen Semydotsky, Andriy Shevchenko, Andriy Oprysko, Serhiy Tsybizov, Yuriy Budzylo, Volodymyr Tereshchenko, Viktor Bespalchenko, Volodymyr Varimez, Mykhailo Vlasiuk, Bohdan Holovash, Serhiy Chuliba, Vladyslav Kostyshyn, Serhiy Popov, Andriy Artemenko and Andriy Eider.
The period of the preliminary investigation has been extended until August 25 at the moment. The investigative actions in the case could be concluded before the end of summer, Polozov told Interfax.
