MOSCOW – Ukraine is considering all options for returning the military sailors who were detained in the Kerch Strait in November 2018, to their home country, Human Rights Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova told Interfax.
“Prisoners-of-war fall under the Geneva Convention. This is a completely different approach, but we are considering and proposing all options, including ones in informal contacts,” Denisova said when asked whether Kyiv was ready to exchange the sailors.
“In the summer, during the month of August, I visited citizens of the Russian Federation incarcerated in Ukraine and proposed that they appeal to President Putin to be exchanged for our citizens, our political prisoners. Twenty-three persons wrote such appeals,” Denisova said.
“The Russian citizens are waiting. Unfortunately, the Russian side has made no proposals to this effect,” she said.
On Jan. 15 morning, the Lefortovsky District Court started considering a request to extend the arrest of the 24 Ukrainians detained in Crimea until April 26.
Denisova wrote on Facebook later that the sailors’ families had a chance to speak with them in the courtroom. “The families managed to speak with the sailors and to support them personally while the judge recessed to her chambers,” she said.
She added that the court had granted investigators’ request to meet in camera for reasons of investigative privilege and the safety of parties to the proceeding. “The court will pronounce nothing but its resolution, without its rationale. All families will be invited to hear the pronouncement of the sentence,” Denisova said.
