KIEV, July 27. /TASS/. At least seven Russian sailors are aboard the Russian tanked detained by Ukraine’s Security Service at the port of Ismail.
A photo posted on the Facebook account of Ukraine’s chief military prosecutor, Anatoly Matios, features seven Russian passports seized from the sailors.
Earlier on Thursday, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) detained Russia’s Nika Spirit tanker at the port of Izmail, claiming that it was the Neyma tanker that had blocked the movement of Ukrainian ships during the Kerch Strait incident of last November. "The Ukrainian Security Service and Military Prosecutor’s Office have detained Russia’s Neyma tanker that blocked the movement of Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait," the statement reads. "A pre-trial investigation made it clear that Russian FSB border guards had carried out an act of armed aggression against Ukraine’s Nikopol and Berdyansk warships and the Yany Kapu tugboat in the Kerch Strait at the direct order of senior FSB officials," the SBU said, adding it would file a motion with court to arrest the vessel as a physical evidence.
According to the SPU, Ukrainian border guards identified the Russian-flagged Nika Spirit tanker that had called at the port of Izmail by its IMO number registered with the EQUASIS international database as the Neyma, a tanker that had been used to block the Kerch Strait.
The NIka Spirit is operated by Altomar Shipping, a company registered in Russia’s Black Sea city of Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Territory, a spokesman for the Russian Trade Union of Sailors told TASS.
On November 25, 2018, three Ukrainian warships violated the procedure of passing through Russia’s territorial water from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. Russian border guards had to use weapons to stop the ships. The ships and 24 sailors aboard them were detained. The sailors are charged with violating Russia’s state border. A criminal case was opened. On July 17, Moscow’s Lefortovo district court extended the arrest term for all of the 24 sailors till October 24.