KIEV, August 19. /TASS/. A court in Kherson has sustained the prosecutor’s appeal to order the arrest of the tanker Mriya, suspected of delivering fuel to Sevastopol, the press-service of the so-called prosecutor’s office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea said.
"The Kherson appellate court has sustained an appeal filed by the prosecutor’s office against the ruling pronounced by the Kherson city court earlier to reject the prosecutor’s request for the arrest of the ship Mriya," the prosecutor’s office said in its Telegram channel.
The investigators claim that the ship had violated Ukraine’s rules of entering and leaving Crimea. Also, the prosecutor’s office argues that in June 2015 the very same ship, then called Vilga, delivered fuel to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. The prosecutor’s office investigators on August 10 searched the ship on the basis of Kherson city court orders.
After the government coup in Kiev in February 2014 the authorities of Crimea and Sevastopol made a decision to call a referendum on the issue of reunification with Russia. In the plebiscite that took place on March 16 more than 80% of those eligible to cast their ballots participated. Reunification with Russia was supported by 96.7% and 95.6% of Crimea’s and Sevastopol’s residents respectively. On March 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin put his signature to the treaty on the accession of Crimea and Sevastopol to the Russian Federation. The Federal Assembly ratified the treaty on March 21. In defiance of the unequivocal outcome of the referendum Kiev has refused to recognize Crimea as part of Russia to this day.