The International Arbitration Tribunal in The Hague said it decided to consider the objections of the Russian Federation in the case of the seizure of sailors and ships in the Black Sea in November 2018. This was reported in a press release from the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
It is noted that the consideration of the case on the merits has been suspended, since the Court will consider Russia's objections at a preliminary stage.
Ukraine was given three months to respond to these objections of Russia, after which the judges will decide on further steps.
On November 25, 2018, Russian border ships, including the NEYMA tanker, committed openly aggressive actions against three Ukrainian ships during their passage from the port of Odessa to the port of Mariupol in the Azov Sea. In particular, the Russian border boat Don rammed the Yañı Qapı raid tug of the Naval Forces of Ukraine. Small armored artillery boats Berdiansk and Nikopol were hit by enemy fire and lost their speed. The harbor tug Yañı Qapı was also forced to stop. As a result, the ships were captured by the Russian special forces. Several Ukrainian servicemen were injured.
The so-called FSB Directorate of Russia for Crimea accused the Ukrainian side of dangerous maneuvers during the call into the temporarily closed water area of the territorial sea of Russia.
The ARC prosecutor's office recognized the Ukrainian sailors captured by the FSB of Russia as prisoners of war.
All detained Ukrainian sailors were taken to Crimea and arrested on November 27 and 28 until January 25, 2019.
Later it became known that the Ukrainian sailors were transported from Crimea to Moscow. On January 15-16, 2019, the Lefortovo District Court of Moscow extended the terms of arrest for all servicemen. 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 return the captured warships to Ukraine. On July 9, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly adopted a resolution on Ukrainian seamen prisoners of war, which demands the immediate and unconditional release of the seamen.
As of July 10, all 24 Ukrainian prisoners of war seamen held in Moscow were charged by the investigation in the final version under Part 3 of Article 322 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (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 detention of all Ukrainian prisoners of war sailors by three months. Twenty-one soldiers were to remain in custody until October 24, and three, injured during the seizure of Ukrainian ships, until October 26, 2019.
On September 7, all 24 sailor prisoners of war were released as part of a large exchange of political prisoners between Ukraine and Russia.