International arbitration supported Ukraine's position in the case of the capture of sailors in 2018 – Kuleba

Kuleba spoke about the decision of the International Arbitration/Collage on Channel 24

Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukraine has won an important positive decision of the International Arbitration. We are talking about the seizure of our ships and sailors in 2018.

Relevant information was announced in the evening by Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba. He wrote about this on June 27.

Kuleba announced the decision of the International Arbitration

Won an important positive decision of the International Arbitration on the seizure of our ships and sailors in 2018 , – said Kuleba.

Dmitry Kuleba explained that:

• The arbitral tribunal rejected Russia's main comments;
• and upheld Ukraine's position.

The Minister explained that Ukraine continues to fight for a fair decision on the merits.

“Russia will be punished for all its crimes, modern and past,” said Dmitry Kuleba.

It is worth remembering that:

• November 25, 2018 off the coast of the temporarily occupied Crimea Russian border guards fired at our ships with 30mm artillery shells from AK-630;
• subsequently, the enemies captured three Ukrainian warships – they are talking about the vessels of the Ukrainian Naval Forces “Nikopol”, “Berdyansk” and “Yany Kapu”;
• 24 of our sailors were detained along with the ships;
• our servicemen were accused of illegally crossing the Russian border, the Ukrainian side explained that Moscow's actions were a violation of the immunity of warships.

Detention and release of ships captured in the Kerch Strait

• Russia seized Ukrainian ships and our sailors, allegedly for entering the temporarily closed water area of ​​the territorial sea of ​​Russia. The ships were moving towards the Kerch Strait.
• After the capture, our sailors were sent to the Moscow pre-trial detention center.
• Subsequently, the UN International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ordered Russia to immediately release the captured sailors and captured ships. However, the Kremlin, as always, did not fulfill this obligation.
• In August 2019, 24 Ukrainian sailors captured by Russia returned to Ukraine. It wasn’t until November 2019 that the Kremlin finally returned the captured warships to Ukraine. We are talking about “Berdyansk”, “Nikopol” and the tugboat “Yana Kapu”. The transfer took place in the Black Sea.
• In November 2019, hearings of the Maritime Tribunal on the seizure by Russia of three Ukrainian military ships and 24 members of their crews began in The Hague.
• It is worth remembering that earlier the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry assumed that the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea would rule on the case in late 2022/early 2023.