The Moscow City Court has declined to release another five out of 24 Ukrainian sailors, arrested following the incident in the Kerch Strait in the fall of 2018, from a pretrial detention facility on August 16.
“The ruling of the Lefortovsky District Court of Moscow extending the custodial term of defendants Volodymyr Tereshchenko, Andriy Shevchenko, Roman Mokriak, Andriy Oprysko, and Serhiy Tsybizov until October 24 shall remain unchanged, the defense team’s appeal shall be dismissed,” the judge said, reading the ruling.
The court earlier upheld the legality of the arrests of Denys Hrytsenko, Andriy Drach, Viacheslav Zinchenko, Mykhailo Vlasiuk, Bohdan Holovash, and Serhiy Popov.
The hearing was held for camera in order to “protect the secrecy of the pretrial investigation.”
On November 25, 2018, Russian border guards used weapons to stop three Ukrainian naval vessels, the Yany Kapu tug and the Berdiansk and the Nikopol armored gunboats, which were traveling from Odesa to Mariupol in the Kerch Strait. The vessels were escorted to Kerch.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, Russia violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and a treaty between Ukraine and Russia on cooperation in the use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait.
The Ukrainians are charged with “conspiracy by a group of persons or an organized group to illegally cross the border using violence or the threat to use violence. If found guilty, they could face up to six years in prison.
The arrestees include the captain of the Yany Kapu tug Oleh Melnychuk, commander of the gunboat Nikopol Bohdan Nebylytsia, commander of the gunboat Berdiansk Roman Mokriak, commander of the logistics vessel battalion of the Ukrainian Southern Naval Base Volodymyr Lisoviy, Ukrainian Security Service officers Andriy Drach and Vasyl Soroka, crewmembers Denis Hrytsenko, Yuriy Bezyazychny, Viacheslav Zinchenko, Yevhen Semydotsky, Andriy Shevchenko, Andriy Oprysko, Serhiy Tsybizov, Yuriy Budzylo, Volodymyr Tereshchenko, Viktor Bespalchenko, Volodymyr Varimez, Mykhailo Vlasiuk, Bohdan Holovash, Serhiy Chuliba, Vladyslav Kostyshyn, Serhiy Popov, Andriy Artemenko, and Andriy Eider.
All of them remain in a detention facility in Moscow.
The inquiry is now complete, and the sailors and defense lawyers are familiarizing themselves with the case. According to the lawyers, this process will continue at least until late September.
