A team of lawyers for Ukrainian prisoner of war (POW) sailors are completing the first package of documents necessary for submitting individual complaints to international institutions, head of the lawyer group Nikolai Polozov has said.
“Our team now is filling out the first package of documents necessary for filing individual complaints to international institutions, including the European Court of Human Rights. These documents will be transferred to the team of Ukrainian lawyers who are working on this,” he said on Facebook on Monday.
Polozov said the POW sailors are receiving parcels in accordance with their needs.
As earlier reported, on November 25, 2018, Russian border guards captured the Yany Kapu tugboat and two small armored artillery boats of Ukraine’s Navy. The 24 Ukrainian sailors on board were taken prisoner and transported to Moscow on November 29.
Russian officials have charged the Ukrainian sailors with illegal crossing of Russia’s border. Ukraine, European Union member states and the United States say the Ukrainian sailors are prisoners of war and should be immediately released.
Moscow’s Lefortovo District Court on January 15 and January 16, 2019, extended pretrial detention for the Ukrainian POWs until April 24, 2019.
