Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Yenin signed a Memorandum of Ukraine on the seizure of sailors and ships in the Black Sea in November 2018, after which the document will be submitted to the Arbitration Tribunal. This was reported by the press service of the Foreign Ministry.
“We want to adjudicate justice in the case of the unlawful detention of our sailors and ships that were captured by Russia in November 2018. We will be pursuing this by all available means, one of which is the Arbitration Court,” Dmitry Kuleba emphasized.
Broadcasted live, Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Yenin signed a Memorandum of Ukraine on the case of the seizure of sailors and ships in the Black Sea in November 2018. Next, a document with a detailed legal position of Ukraine will be submitted to the Arbitration Tribunal.
Previously, on November 25, 2018, the border ships of the Russian Federation, including the NEYMA tanker, carried out openly aggressive actions against three Ukrainian ships during their transition from the port of Odesa to the port of Mariupol in the Sea of Azov. In particular, the Russian border boat Don made a battering ram of the naval tugboat “Yany Kapu”. Small armored artillery boats "Berdyansk" and "Nikopol" were hit by enemy fire and lost speed. The “Yana Kapu” tugboat was also forced to a halt. As a result, the ships were captured by Russian special forces. Several Ukrainian servicemen were injured.
The "Office of the FSB of Russia in Crimea" accused the Ukrainian side of "dangerous maneuvers" during the call "in the temporarily closed waters of the territorial sea of Russia."
The ARC prosecutor's office recognized the captured by Russian FSB Ukrainian sailors as prisoners of war.
All detained Ukrainian sailors were taken to the Crimea and arrested on November 27 and 28 until January 25, 2019.
Later, it became known that Ukrainian sailors were escorted from Crimea to Moscow. On January 15-16, 2019, the Lefortovo District Court of Moscow extended the terms of arrest to all military personnel. Later, all 24 Ukrainian prisoners of war were assigned a psychological and psychiatric examination.
On May 25, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea at a meeting in Hamburg ordered Russia to immediately release 24 Ukrainian sailors, as well as to return captured warships to Ukraine. On July 9, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly adopted a resolution on prisoners of war for Ukrainian sailors, containing a demand for the immediate and unconditional release of sailors.
As of July 10, all 24 Ukrainian prisoners of war detained in Moscow, were charged under the final version of part 3 of art. 322 of the Criminal Code (Illegal crossing of the state border of the Russian Federation committed by an organized group).
On July 17, the Lefortovo District Court of Moscow extended the period of detention for all Ukrainian prisoners of war for three months. Twenty-one military men were to remain in custody until October 24, and three wounded during the capture of Ukrainian ships until October 26, 2019.
On September 7, all 24 prisoners of war were released as part of a large exchange of political prisoners between Ukraine and Russia.