The Moscow city court has turned down appeals against the extension of arrest until April 24 of four Ukrainian naval seamen who were taken captive by force near the Kerch Strain on November 25, 2018.
“The ruling of the Moscow Lefortovo Court, which extended the terms of detention until April 24, 2019, in relation to Andriy Shevchenko, Bohdan Holovash, Sergiy Popov and Volodymyr Tereshchenko, has remained in force,” the press service of the Moscow City Court told Interfax on Feb. 7.
Consideration of lawyers’ appeals against similar decisions of the Lefortovo Court with regard to other 20 Ukrainian naval seamen will take place on other days.
On November 25, 2018, Russian border guards used weapons to stop three Ukrainian naval vessels, the Yany Kapu tug and the Berdyansk and Nikopol armored gunboats, which were en route from Odesa to Mariupol near the Kerch Strait. The vessels were escorted to Kerch.
Courts in Simferopol and Kerch remanded the 22 sailors and two Ukrainian Security Service officials in custody until January 25, 2019.
In late November, the Ukrainians were transferred to Moscow. The court extended all the Ukrainians’ arrests until April 24.
