After staying moored in Russian-occupied Crimea for a year, three Ukrainian navy vessels, namely gunboats Nikopol and Berdyansk and tugboat Yany Kapu, were returned by Russia in poor condition, according to Ukraine’s naval command.
The vessels handed over to Ukrainian naval forces in the Black Sea on Nov. 18, started arriving in the southern Ukrainian port of Ochakiv in Mykolaiv Oblast afternoon on Nov. 20.
According to Ukraine’s top naval commander Admiral Ihor Voronchenko, the vessels were slowly trailed by tugboats to the Ochakiv military terminal, since they were not capable of navigating on their own.
“Russians screwed them up,” Admiral told the press on Nov. 20.
“They even dismantled ceiling lamps, electrical outlets, and toilet bowls. So we’ll show the world the Russians’ barbaric attitude toward this.”
The arrival was met by crowds of civilians coming to the port, and the country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky also showed up at the scene.
The Ukrainian navy ship Nikopol is towed towards the Ochakiv port on Nov. 20, 2019. (AFP)
The vessels were directly attacked and captured by Russian coast guard warships on Nov. 25, 2018, in an incident in the Black Sea as Ukrainian naval group was trying to cross the Kerch Strait and enter the Azov Sea to reinforce Ukraine’s insignificant naval presence in the region aggressively monopolized by Russia.
As a result of Russia’s attack, three Ukrainian sailors were wounded, with tugboat Yany Kapu rammed by a Russian warship, and also with Berdyansk sustaining a missile strike.
All 24 Ukrainian crewmembers were eventually arrested and detained in a Moscow jail on charges of violation of Russia’s maritime border in occupied Crimea.
The Kremlin still calls the Ukrainian naval passage a “provocation,” while Ukraine insists on its full right for free navigation in the Kerch Strait, in compliance with the 2003 treaty between the two nations, and do not recognize Crimea’s occupation.
Eventually, after 10 months in captivity, all 24 Ukrainian sailors returned to Ukraine as part of the Sept. 7 Russia-Ukraine prisoner swap.
On Nov. 18, Russia also returned the captured ships that had been moored in the Kerch port, as demanded by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea judgment, although the Kremlin says the vessels were brought back to Ukraine not in compliance with the tribunal’s decision.
Moreover, according to Russia’s foreign ministry, the vessels remain a piece of evidence in the alleged maritime border violation criminal case, therefore they were handed over to Ukraine “for safe custody.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s diplomacy says it is to continue its legal battle with Russia in The Hague, in a bid to award damages and make the Kremlin recognize its criminal aggression in the Kerch Strait.
In Ochakiv, the returned warships are now expected to be examined in terms of the inflicted damage and spying equipment that could be mounted on them by Russians during the year-long stay in Kerch.
Other reports noted that Russian investigators, apart from the vessels’ documentation, also expropriated all navigation and communication equipment, including U.S.-produced Harris radio sets operated by Nikopol and Berdyansk.
Besides, fresh images of the ships showed impact holes from the Russian fire upon Berdyansk fixed by the time of the Nov. 18 handover to Ukraine.
