Medvedchuk Says To Continue Negotiations On Ukrainian Sailors Release
Umer Jamshaid Published April 13, 2019 | 05:48 PM
Chairman of the political council of Ukrainian party Opposition Platform - For Life Viktor Medvedchuk said on Saturday that he will continue to conduct negotiations on the issue of releasing Ukrainian sailors arrested in Russia following a November 2018 incident in the Kerch Strait
Earlier in the week, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko instructed the Ukrainian Security Service to consider involvement of Medvedchuk in negotiations on release of prisoners in Donbas.
"I do and will negotiate release of the Ukrainian sailors as a chairman of the political council on behalf of the party. We will continue to implement a peace plan. And let people, the citizens of Ukraine, see who is doing what, who can achieve what, and who offers what," Medvedchuk wrote on Twitter.
On November 25, Ukraine's Berdyansk and Nikopol gunboats, and the Yany Kapu tugboat illegally crossed the Russian maritime border as they sailed toward the Kerch Strait, the entrance to the Sea of Azov.
Russia seized the Ukrainian vessels and detained crew members after they failed to respond to a demand to stop. After the incident, a criminal case on illegal border crossing was opened in Russia.
Moscow has repeatedly slammed Kiev's attempts to portray the detained sailors as prisoners of war, stressing that they faced criminal charges. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the incident was a provocation prepared in advance as a pretext to declare martial law in Ukraine, which was announced after the incident and lasted for a month. Putin said the provocation could be linked to Poroshenko's low approval ratings before the presidential election.
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