The top commander of Ukraine’s Naval Forces, Admiral Ihor Voronchenko, said he was ready to go to a Russian prison if President Vladimir Putin of Russia agreed to release all 24 Ukrainian sailors captured in the Black Sea on Nov. 25.
“My heart is tearing itself apart when I see my soldiers illegally kept in Russia,” the senior officer told the German news outlet Bild in an interview published on Dec. 6.
He called on Putin to agree on such a swap and free the sailors.
The 24 Ukrainian military servicemen, including two officers from Ukraine’s SBU security service were taken prisoner by Russian special forces on Nov. 25, after three Ukrainian vessels — two patrol boats and a tug — were attacked by Russian coast guard warships near the Kerch Strait between the Russian mainland and Ukraine’s Crimea, which is currently under Russian occupation.
At least three Ukrainian crew members were wounded in the assault.
Following the incident, the damaged vessels were taken to the Crimean port of Kerch, while the sailors and security officers were transported to prisons in Moscow.
The Ukrainian government, along with a number of Western nations and organizations, including NATO, have called the Russian actions illegal and demanded that the Russia immediately free the Ukrainian servicemen.
The Nov. 25 incident sparked an unprecedented increase in military tension in the region, with Ukraine imposing martial law in 10 of its regions bordered by Russia, or Russian-controlled Transnistria, or the Black and Azov coastline, starting from the afternoon of Nov. 26.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has called on NATO to deploy forces in the Azov Sea to help deter Russia’s monopolization and militarization of the disputed sea area.
However, during his conversation with the Bild, Admiral Voronchenko said that the alliance would not be able to help Ukraine in the Azov.
“There’s an agreement dated 2003, which demands that any warship entering the Azov Sea must be permitted by both Ukraine and Russia,” the commander told.
“It means that even if Ukraine wanted it, Russia would never allow it.”
