You're reading: Russian authorities apply psychological pressure on Ukrainian sailors

Russian authorities continue to exert psychological pressure on Ukrainian prisoner of war (POW) sailors held at the Lefortovo prison in Moscow, head of the group of lawyers defending them Nikolai Polozov has said.

“A seaman Andriy Oprysko was summoned to the remand center of the pretrial facility several days ago. There a certain person (presumably the FSB operative officer), in the absence of a lawyer, began to ask him questions about the conditions of detention, his health and the circumstances of the case. Oprysko categorically refused to answer the stranger’s questions,” Polozov said on Facebook on Feb. 19.

Polozov said this is not the first case of putting pressure on Oprysko, because about a month ago unknown people also came to him with conversations and questions.

“Oprysko filed a statement that he did not want to have any conversations with anyone without the presence of a lawyer or a Ukrainian consul,” Polozov said, noting that the case illustrates how Russia is violating provisions of the Geneva convention on the treatment of prisoners of war.

As earlier reported, On November 25, 2018, Russian border guards used weapons to stop three Ukrainian naval vessels, the Yany Kapu tug and the Berdiansk 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 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 did not duly notify that naval vessels were planning to pass through the Kerch Strait.

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 22 sailors and two Ukrainian Security Service officials in custody until January 25, 2019.

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.

In late November, the Ukrainians were transferred to Moscow. The court extended all the Ukrainians’ arrests until April 24.

Kyiv calls the detained sailors prisoners of war.