Russia Charges Detained Ukrainian Sailors With 'Illegal Border Crossing'
By RFE/RL
A lawyer for a Ukrainian sailor detained by Russia last month while trying to pass from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov has confirmed that all 24 Ukrainian sailors involved in the incident have been charged by Russian authorities with "illegal border crossing."
The sailors were aboard three Ukrainian Navy ships that were fired upon by the Russian Coast Guard and seized by Russian special forces on November 25 when their ships attempted to pass through the Kerch Strait connecting the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
Nikolai Polozov, a lawyer for detained Ukrainian sailor Denys Hrytsenko, said on December 3 that the detained sailors were formally charged on November 27.
Dzhemil Temishev, an attorney for another of the Ukrainian sailors, said on November 29 that 21 of the detainees were being transferred from Russia-annexed Crimea to the Lefortovo detention center in Moscow.
Russian authorities say three other Ukrainian sailors wounded on November 25 were receiving medical treatment at a different, unspecified detention center.
Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said on December 3 that the detained Ukrainian sailors have food, "clothes, and all the necessities" inside Russian detention facilities, including legal assistance.
Moskalkova told Rossia-24 TV on December 3 that rights monitors "have visited the sailors and spoken with every one of them."
She said the sailors "have no complaints about custody conditions or medical aid" and that lawyers have access to their clients.
The incident has raised tensions between Kyiv and Moscow to their highest point since Moscow illegally annexed Crimea in 2014.
It also led Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to get parliament to implement 30 days of martial law in several Ukrainian regions bordering Russia or Ukraine's coastlines.
Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for the altercation off the coast of Ukraine's Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula near the Kerch Strait.
Russia closed the strait to all sea traffic during the incident. Kyiv says Russia is denying passage to Ukrainian commercial traffic in and out of its Sea of Azov ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk.
Western leaders -- including all members of the G7 -- have called on Russia to release the Ukrainian crew and return the seized navy ships to Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Poroshenko has renewed a call for "Germany and the allies" to increase their naval presence in the Black Sea in order to be a "deterring factor" for Russia.
Poroshenko said in an interview with Germany's Funke Media Group on December 2 that "we need a strong, unified, unambiguous reaction to Russia's aggressive behavior."
He also said that Russia had deployed a large number of troops along its border with Ukraine, a charge he previously made days ago, and alleged that Russia intends to extend its control within Ukraine.
"Moscow is trying to create a land corridor from occupied Donbas to occupied Crimea by blockading [the port cities of] Mariupol and Berdyansk," said Poroshenko, naming the two largest Ukrainian cities on the coast of the Sea of Azov.
NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said after Poroshenko first made his call for a stronger Western naval force in the Black Sea that "there is already a lot of NATO [vessels] in the Black Sea and we will continue to assess our presence in the region," the AP quoted her as saying.
Poroshenko also called for preventing the construction of Russia's Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea, a notion that has recently gained vocal support from Washington.
"We need to stop Nord Stream 2," he said, of the project that would eliminate the need to ship Russian gas through Ukraine to Western Europe. "We need to think about new sanctions [against Russia] now."
"Everything depends on Russia, the country that is waging a hybrid war against Ukraine," Poroshenko continued. "Our country has never provoked any military escalation."