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Ukrainian sailors transferred to Moscow prison placed in quarantine

To date, there are over 20 Ukrainian sailors in custody in the detention center

MOSCOW, November 30. /TASS/. The Ukrainian sailors arrested for illegally breaching Russia’s state border near Kerch and brought to Moscow’s Lefortovo pre-trial detention center are currently being housed in what’s known as quarantine cells, a member of Moscow’s public supervisory commission to monitor the observance of civil rights in detention facilities, whose representatives visited the sailors on Friday, told TASS.

Currently, there are 21 Ukrainian sailors in custody in the detention center. "Each of them is being kept in a separate cell in isolation. These cells differ from regular ones because they lack TV sets and refrigerators. Prisoners are usually transferred from quarantine to standard cells within ten days’ time. In Lefortovo, they are usually for two inmates," he explained, adding that the Ukrainian sailors have no complaints about their incarceration conditions.

The commission’s members also informed TASS that three more Ukrainian nationals who were wounded during their detention had been taken to the Matrosskaya Tishina prison hospital.

Meanwhile, the sailors’ defense attorneys filed appeals with Crimea’s Supreme Court over their arrest, Nikolai Polozov, the lawyer for arrested Ukrainian serviceman Denis Gritsenko, told TASS.

"The attorneys appealed the ruling on the arrest of 24 Ukrainian military servicemen in Crimea’s Supreme Court. The date of legal proceedings has not been specified yet," he said.

Kerch Strait incident

On November 25, three Ukrainian naval ships breached the current rules of passage from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. The intruding Ukrainian vessels illegally crossed the Russian state border, trespassed into Russian territorial waters and conducted dangerous maneuvers. In defiance of repeated warnings and demands to stop, the Ukrainian ships carried on violating the law, which drove the Russian forces to use gunfire in order to compel them to stop. As a result, all three ships were detained. In addition, three Ukrainians were injured in the incident, who were later given medical assistance. A criminal case was opened over the violation of the Russian state border. Moscow branded Ukraine’s stunt a provocation, while the European Union and NATO called for de-escalation of tensions. In contrast, Ukraine exploited the incident to impose martial law across 10 regions.