You're reading: EU member states’ representatives to attend Moscow hearings on Ukrainian POWs

Representatives of the European Union member states will be present at court hearings in Moscow, Russia, on Ukrainian sailors who are prisoners of war (POWs).

Ukrainian human rights commissioner in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, Liudmyla Denisova said this on Facebook that EU Ambassador to Russia Markus Ederer had assured her of this during a meeting in Moscow on Monday, April 15.

“I’ve just met with European Union Ambassador to the Russian Federation Markus Ederer. We discussed a package of questions. [I] briefed him on recent information about our prisoners of war and about the planned court hearings to extend the preventive measure. Markus Ederer assured me that representatives of European countries that are in Russia will attend the court hearings,” she said.

According to Denisova, she thanked Ederer for the European community’s support for Ukraine in an effort to protect its citizens.

Denisova recalled that the Lefortovo Court of Moscow would meet on Wednesday, April 17, on the Ukrainian sailors, who were captured by Russian forces in the Kerch Strait in November 2018, to extend their preventive measure. “We” attend these trials together with parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, we will support the young men. We call on those who do care – citizens, journalists and the entire international community – to join the hearings. Our sailors need support!” she wrote.