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All 24 Ukrainian sailors in custody for illegal border crossing, arrested for two months

Crimean courts have imposed two-month pre-trial detentions on all 24 Ukrainian sailors, who are suspected of breaching the Russian state border

SIMFEROPOL, November 28. /TASS/. Crimean courts have imposed two-month pre-trial detentions on all 24 Ukrainian sailors, who are suspected of breaching the Russian state border, a TASS correspondent reported.

On Wednesday, the Kiev district court of Simferopol has placed under arrest nine of the detained Ukrainian navy crewmembers, namely Bogdan Nebylitsa, Oleg Melnichuk, Denis Gritsenko, Andrei Drach, Yuri Bezyazychny, Vyacheslav Zinchenko, Yevgeny Semidotsky, Vladimir Lisoviy, and Andrei Shevchenko.

Earlier on Tuesday, the courts imposed two-month pre-trial detentions on 15 of them.

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) reported on November 25 that the Ukrainian warships, the Berdyansk, the Nikopol and the Yany Kapu had breached the Russian state border on Sunday morning and later attempted to carry out illegal maneuvers in Russia’s territorial waters later. The Ukrainian vessels ignored the legitimate demands of the Coast Guard of the FSB Border Service and the Black Sea Fleet to immediately halt, and stop performing dangerous maneuvers. As a result of blatantly disregarding the orders, a chase involving some gunfire ensued in order to stop the Ukrainian ships, which were detained in Russian territorial waters.

Moscow branded Kiev’s maneuvers in the Kerch Strait as a dangerous provocation, while the European Union and the NATO called for a de-escalation of tensions.