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Arrested Ukrainian sailors have no complaints over confinement conditions

According to earlier reports, Ukrainian consuls visited the three wounded Ukrainian sailors at the prison hospital in Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina detention center

MOSCOW, December 7. /TASS/. Ukrainian sailors who were arrested for violating the Russian border in the Kerch Strait have no complaints over the conditions they are being kept in at Moscow’s pre-trial facility, Yevgeny Yenikeyev, a member of Moscow’s Public Monitoring Commission, told TASS on Friday.

"All the sailors we have spoken with said they had no complaints. They have received food products from volunteers. Clothes will be handed over to them on Monday," he said.

According to Yenikeyev, one of the sailors, Yuri Budzylo, receives medical treatment for non-insulin dependent diabetes. "Yuri receives all necessary medicines. Blood sugar levels are measured twice a day," he said.

According to earlier reports, Ukrainian consuls visited the three wounded Ukrainian sailors at the prison hospital in Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina detention center. Moscow’s human rights ombudswoman Tatyana Potyayeva told TASS earlier on Friday that the three sailors feel better. "I asked the medics at the detention center to present an official document. As follows from it the patients have undergone comprehensive examination and received doctors’ advice. Their condition is improving," she said. All sailors are in an "absolutely normal mood." Two of them suffered minor arm injuries, and one, wounds of both legs.

In violation of the rules of passage via Russia’s territorial sea and the Kerch Strait, three warships of the Ukrainian Navy crossed Russia’s state border on November 25. The Russian side had to use weapons to compel the ships to stop. Three Ukrainian servicemen were lightly wounded. They received medical assistance. The ships were detained and escorted to the port of Kerch. A criminal case was initiated on border violation charges.

The twenty-four Ukrainian nationals who were detained after the incident have been arrested till January 25. They face charges of illegal border crossing (part 3, article 322 of the Russian Criminal Code), which carry a punishment of up to six year in prison.

The Ukrainian sailor were placed in two pre-trial facilities in Moscow. Twenty one of them are being kept at the Lefortovo facility and the three wounded sailors - at Matrosskaya Tishina’s hospital.