YEKATERINBURG, October 5. /TASS/. Russia continues negotiations with the Ukrainian authorities to return home the Russian civilian sailors held in Izmail, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said during her working trip to Yekaterinburg on Wednesday.
"We are conducting a dialogue with Ukraine, the Ukrainian government, on the sailors who are in Izmail now," she said. "We hope very much that the issue of Russian civilian sailors’ return to Russia will be finalized."
Moskalkova pointed out that the sailors should have been evicted from one of the ships to the shore, as the vessel was to be sold.
"But it has never happened as a result of the dialogue," she said.
On September 2, the Russian human rights ombudswoman stated that the situation with Russian commercial sailors, who had been held captive at Izmail’s shipyards by Ukraine for more than six months, had deteriorated. According to Moskalkova, 66 seamen, five of whom were severely ill, were aboard the ships then. She called on the United Nations, the OSCE and the Council of Europe to help return the Russian sailors home without delay. Later, Moskalkova said that Moscow managed to secure the release of one of the detainees from Ukraine.