KIEV, June 25. /TASS/. Ukrainian courts have ordered the arrest of 18 vessels for "violating the procedure of entry to Crimean ports." Kiev intends to declare them wanted and to turn to other countries for assistance in carrying out these sanctions.
"The Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (department of Prosecutor’s General Office of Ukraine, located outside of Crimea -TASS) appeals to court to arrest the vessels that violated the procedure of entry/exit to and from the occupied peninsula. Currently the arrest is imposed on 18 ships in violation," the Prosecutor’s General Office’s press service reported on Thursday.
"The autonomy’s Prosecutor’s Office is planning to turn to the Interpol Ukrainian bureau in order to place such ships on a wanted list and to direct the claims to foreign states regarding the international legal assistance in order to complete the arrests," the statement said.
The Prosecutor’s Office reiterated that since 2014, Ukraine considers the entry of foreign ships to Crimean ports as a violation of its legislation. "Foreign-flag ships calling at closed peninsula seaports is classified as action undermining the sovereignty of Ukraine and violating the norms of the national legislation, which entails criminal sanctions on the ship’s owners, operators, and captains," the press service stated, elaborating Kiev’s position, and asserting that "this legislation is violated predominantly by vessels under a Russian flag, and sometimes by those under the flags of Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, that is, the countries with which there is no international cooperation in this direction."
After the coup d’etat in Ukraine in February 2014, Crimea and Sevastopol held a referendum in March 2014, in which 96.7% of Crimean and 95.6% of Sevastopol voters chose to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. Eighty percent of the voting population participated in the referendum. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the reunification deal on March 18, 2014, which the Federation Council (upper house of the Russian parliament) ratified on March 21, 2014. Despite the conclusive results of the referendum, Kiev has refused to recognize Crimea as a part of Russia.