Moscow Says Work To Settle Situation With Detained Ukrainian Sailors Continues

The work on resolving the situation with Ukrainian sailors who were detained last year for illegally crossing into Russia is ongoing, with Moscow paying due attention to the issue, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told Sputnik

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th July, 2019) The work on resolving the situation with Ukrainian sailors who were detained last year for illegally crossing into Russia is ongoing, with Moscow paying due attention to the issue, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told Sputnik.

"We pay due attention to resolving the situation with the Ukrainian sailors. The Russian and Ukrainian presidents discussed this issue in their phone conversation on July 11. The work is ongoing," Karasin said.

Earlier this week, Karasin said that Russia and Ukraine were discussing the possibility to exchange Ukrainian sailors for Russian detainees being held in Ukraine.

Last week, lawyer Nikolai Polozov told Sputnik that the active stage of the investigation was over and that all 24 detained sailors had been charged with violating the Article 322.3 of the Russian criminal code, which concerns illegal crossings of Russian state border by a group of persons in a premeditated conspiracy. On Wednesday, a Moscow court ruled to keep the Ukrainian sailors in custody until October 24.

The Russian Foreign Ministry sent on June 25 diplomatic notes to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow, drawing attention to opportunities, existing in Russia's criminal procedure legislation, that Ukraine could use in order to release the sailors. Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin responded with calling on Moscow to release the sailors immediately. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy then said that Klimkin had not coordinated with him this response. The president also asked Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman to take disciplinary action against Klimkin.

In November 2018, 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.