Twenty-four families of sailors who are currently detained in Russia as military prisoners have all received one-time financial assistance from Ukraine — $3,600 per family, the Ukrainian government said on Dec. 30.
“We have worked a lot with the Ukrainian navy to prepare all the documents and to identify those families… of Ukrainian sailors, who were illegally detained in the Black Sea,” said Vadym Chernysh, the Minister of Temporarily Occupied Territories.
“All of the families have already received Hr 100,000 ($3,600),” Chernysh said, noting that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine passed a decree allowing for such payments on Dec. 5.
He also said that his ministry is doing its best to free the sailors and return them home. “We are keeping in touch with international humanitarian organizations (and) lawyers (who work with) prisoners of war to free the sailors from the Russian jail,” Chernysh said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainians have launched a flash mob to support the sailors: people are decorating their New Year trees with ships made of blue and yellow paper, the colors on Ukraine’s flag.
Посольство приєдналося до акції «Жовто-блакитний кораблик на ялинку». Закликаємо звільнити 🇺🇦 військовополонених, незаконно затриманих 🇷🇺, яка, порушуючи міжнародне морське право, реалізувала акт збройної агресії проти 🇺🇦 в Азовському морі #Жовто_блакитний_кораблик_на_ялинку pic.twitter.com/dvHAnfSKFq
— UkraineInSlovenia (@UKRinSLO) December 29, 2018
“Our embassy has joined the ‘Yellow-blue ship on a New Year tree’ campaign.
We call for the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war, who were illegally detained by Russia,
which, in violation of international maritime law, carried out an act of armed aggression
against Ukraine in the Azov Sea,” the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Slovenia wrote on Twitter.
Moscow detained the 24 Ukrainians sailors on Nov. 25, when Russian Coast Guard ships attacked and then seized three Ukrainian Navy boats in waters near Crimea. The boats had tried to cross the Kerch Strait connecting the Black and Azov seas.
The attack was also the culmination of months of tension in the Azov Sea and the Kerch Strait, with Russia effectively seizing full control of the strait and harassing Ukrainian and international vessels in the nearby waters. The two nations are supposed to share these waters under an international treaty signed in 2003.
The incident led the Ukrainian government to impose one month of limited martial law in 10 regions of the country from Nov. 26 to Dec. 26.
