MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. Moscow’s Lefortovo District Court has extended for another three months the arrest of the Ukrainian sailors detained in the Kerch Strait last November, the court’s press service told TASS on Wednesday.

"The Lefortovo District Court of Moscow has ruled to extend the arrest of 24 defendants by three months, until July 24, 2019," a court official said. The session was held behind closed doors.

The time limit of the investigation is until August 25.

Kerch Strait incident

On November 25, three Ukrainian navy ships violated the regime of Russian territorial waters for navy ships when moving from the Black Sea to the Azov Sea. In order to force them to stop in the Strait of Kerch, weapons were fired. The ships were detained and transferred to the town of Kerch. Later, the court arrested 24 Ukrainian sailors. They are currently held in a pretrial detention center in Moscow and charged with illegal crossing of the Russian border.

The ships’ crew members - 24 Ukrainian nationals are charged with violating the Russian border under Article 322.3 of the Russian Criminal Code. If found guilty, they may face up to six years in prison.