Russia has returned three military vessels it attacked and seized from Ukraine during an infamous maritime incident in the Kerch Strait on Nov. 25, 2018.
The the Black Sea clash led to Russia taking 24 Ukrainian sailors prisoner and holding them in custody until a prisoner exchange in September.
On Nov. 18, the three ships — gunboats Nikopol and Berdyansk and tugboat Yany Kapu — were finally brought by Russia to a previously agreed-upon rendezvous point in the Black Sea, some 110 kilometers east of Russian-occupied Crimea, and handed over to a Ukrainian naval group that would take them to Ukrainian shores, the Ukrainian navy said.
As planned, the handover took place approximately at noon without incident.
According to Kyiv Posts sources in the Ukrainian navy, the vessels will be towed to the Odesa military harbor for maintenance checkups and repairs.
The vessels were moored at the port of Kerch in Russian-occupied Crimea for a year since the day they were directly attacked by the Russian coast guard in a bid to prevent them from crossing the Kerch Strait and entering the Sea of Azov.
After an 8 hour chase in the Black Sea, the Ukrainian naval group was eventually fired upon and rammed by Russian warships supported from the air, and then a special task group arrested all of the group’s 24 crew members.
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Three Ukrainian sailors sustained injuries during the incident.
The arrested Ukrainians were eventually detained in a Moscow jail on charges of violating what Russia declares as its maritime border near occupied Crimea.
The Nov. 25 incident marked the first direct and open attack by forces flying the Russian flag on the Ukrainian military, after five years of ongoing proxy war in Donbas. The incident caused the sharpest spike in tensions between Russia and Ukraine in years and led then-President Petro Poroshenko to declare martial law in 10 of the country’s regions until Dec. 26.
On May 25, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, a United Nations institution, ruled that Russia must release the detained sailors and bring the captured vessels back to Ukraine.
Russia ignored the judgment regarding the sailors, although, starting in 2019, it proposed returning the ships to Kyiv. In February, Poroshenko asserted that Ukraine would agree to take the vessels only together with all of occupied Crimea.
After spending nearly 10 months in Russian custody, the sailors were eventually returned to Ukraine as part of a 35-for-35 prisoner swap between the two countries held on Sept. 7.
Read also: What we know about the 24 freed Ukrainian sailors
In October, Ukrainian diplomats reported that Western-mediated negotiations with the Kremin would also result in Russia returning the ships in the coming weeks. Russia’s border guard service confirmed this on Nov. 17.
At the same time, Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry noted in a Nov. 18 statement noted that the vessels, nonetheless, remain a piece of material evidence its criminal case over the alleged state border violation.
“Their transfer (of the ships) to the Ukrainian side for safe custody became possible as the Russian competent agencies have completed all necessary investigative procedures regarding the vessels,” the statement reads. “And their presence on the territory of the Russian Federation is not necessary for the continuing criminal probe.”
The Russians again referred to the Nov. 25 incident as an intentional Ukrainian sting operation and vowed to henceforth “stiffly thwart all provocations near Russia’s borders.”
Earlier, Russian media reported that Russian investigators had confiscated the vessel’s documentation and their crew members’ personal weapons, although the ships’ primary armament was not dismantled. Additionally, an impact hole on Nikopol’s cockpit caused by a Russian missile was reportedly fixed.
In its statement, the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry noted that the vessels would be carefully checked to make it clear “in what condition the returned vessels are and if any equipment and documentation were expropriated.”
In particular, U.S.-produced, highly-protected radio sets used on gunboats Nikopol and Berdyansk could be of interest to Russian special services.
Despite the ships’ return, Ukrainian diplomacy will nonetheless continue its legal battle with Russia over the Kerch Strait incident, according to Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, Olena Zerkal.
On her Facebook page, Zerkal noted that the first hearing of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague in the Ukraine v. Russia case would take place on Nov. 21.
“Our goal is the recognition of a violation of the law, the restoration of (justice) and receiving decent compensation,” Zerkal wrote.
“We also want to go all the way and prove to the whole world and the arbitration tribunal that the Nov. 25, 2018 passage (through the Kerch Strait) was peaceful and legal, while the deeds of the Russian Federation, including the criminal prosecution of our sailors, are a violation of international law.”
