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German Foreign Minister Gayko Maas, during an interview in Moscow, said unacceptable to Germany the arrest of Ukrainian sailors. The German minister demanded the immediate release of the prisoners.
He announced at a joint press conference with the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Pavel Klimkin, Ukrinform writes.
Also read: Ukraine is ready to exchange 25 Russian citizens against Ukrainian political prisoners [19659004] The minister pointed out that the demands of Germany concerned not only the seafarers but also the people of Ukraine. Other political prisoners of the Kremlin
In Moscow, I also found that the arrest of Ukrainian sailors was totally unacceptable to the federal government (Germany, 24th). And we demanded the immediate release of the sailors. This is also true for other political prisoners, such as Oleg Sentsov,
said Maas.
The German minister added that this issue for Germany was of great importance and that it should be resolved by the Russian side with "other cases".
"We support the release of these people and we will not give in to these issues," he said. Four of them will be in detention until 24 and 16 April. The next day, January 16 the court extended the duration of the arrest of 4 other Ukrainian seamen until 24 April.
Note that the seafarers' lawyers had been instructed to refer the Ukrainian cases to a military court because they were prisoners of war. The Russian court, however, rejected this request.
How do Ukrainian sailors become Russian prisoners of war? On November 25, 2018, a Russian border ship broke into the tug of the Ukrainian army in the Kerch Strait. This tug was one of three Ukrainian warships that legally traveled from the port of Odessa to the port of Mariupol.
Despite this, Russia has reported that Ukrainian vessels have illegally entered the waters of the temporarily closed territorial sea of the FR and have gone to the Kerch Strait.
After the attack, Ukrainian ships continued to go to Mariupol. However, when leaving the Kerch Strait, Russian border ships fired on Ukrainian ships. Because of this, six Ukrainian soldiers were injured.
Russia seized 2 Ukrainian ships and captured 24 Ukrainian sailors. They were then arrested in occupied Crimea and taken to a Moscow SIZO. All Ukrainian sailors announced the opening of an investigation into Russian prisoners of war.
A preliminary investigation of a sailor will continue in Russia until May 25. And their lawyers predict that the trial of Ukrainians in Russia will not start sooner than a year later
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