Yelchenko, Mardini discuss access to captured Ukrainian sailors

12.01.2019 11:34

Ukrinform

Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations Volodymyr Yelchenko met with Permanent Observer of the International Committee of the Red Cross to the UN Robert Mardini.

Yelchenko thanked Mardini for the humanitarian aid provided in eastern Ukraine and discussed the access to the captured Ukrainian sailors, who are currently held in Russia.

“Ambassador Yelchenko in a meeting with Permanent Observer of ICRC to the UN Robert Mardini: grateful for ICRC’s support in addressing the humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine. The issue of access to the Ukrainian sailors unlawfully detained in Russia was also discussed,” the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN posted on Twitter.

As reported, on November 25, 2018, Russian border ships fired on and seized in the Kerch Strait three Ukrainian vessels that were moving from the port of Odesa to the port of Mariupol. Twenty-four Ukrainian sailors were captured.

Russian-controlled "courts" in occupied Crimea arrested all sailors for two months, and they were taken to Moscow.

At present, 21 Ukrainian servicemen are in Moscow's Lefortovo remand prison, while three more wounded sailors are held in the Matrosskaya Tishina remand prison.