The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) has no jurisdiction to demand that Russia release Ukrainian sailors and return naval ships seized during the Kerch Strait incident, therefore Moscow should not abide by this "illogical" decision, the head of a working group on international legal issues in the permanent mission of Crimea under the Russian president said on Saturday
SIMFEROPOL/MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th May, 2019) The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) has no jurisdiction to demand that Russia release Ukrainian sailors and return naval ships seized during the Kerch Strait incident, therefore Moscow should not abide by this "illogical" decision, the head of a working group on international legal issues in the permanent mission of Crimea under the Russian president said on Saturday.Earlier in the day, the Hamburg-based ITLOS demanded that Russia release the Ukrainian warships seized in the Kerch Strait for violating the Russian border in November. However, the tribunal noted that it did not demand that criminal prosecution of 24 detained sailors be canceled. Moscow previously informed the ITLOS that it would not take part in the hearings, since this tribunal did not have jurisdiction to consider Ukraine's claims.
"This is an illogical decision that cannot not be enforced. I draw your attention to the fact that it was not unanimous, and a number of judges expressed their dissenting opinions. Naval ships are not subject to the jurisdiction of this tribunal, and the [UN] Convention on the Law of the Sea is also irrelevant in this case. Russia lawfully reacted to the violation of its state border," Alexander Molokhov said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has similarly said that statements made by both Russia and Ukraine, when signing and ratifying the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, rule out the possibility of using the convention's dispute resolution procedures regarding the Kerch Strait incident.
According to Molokhov, the tribunal's ruling made a special emphasis on the immunity of naval ships and humanitarian aspects.
"I believe that no immunity can be applied to the detained Ukrainian sailors who are charged with a criminal offense. If they are prisoners of war, not criminals, as the Ukrainian side alleges, the Convention on the Law of the Sea does not regulate military activities of naval ships either, this is a different area of public international law," Molokhov argued.
Alexander Sherin, the first deputy chairman of the Russian lower house's defense committee, in turn, described the ruling as a "political" one, stressing that it made no sense for Russia to abide by this decision.
"When the state border of the Russian Federation is violated, the Russian Federation unilaterally takes all necessary measures to protect its state maritime borders. There are no international organizations in this case," he told Sputnik.
The chairman of the Russian upper house's international affairs committee, Konstantin Kosachev, meanwhile, noted that Moscow should firmly stand its ground on the matter.
"Russia should continue to defend its position and further dismiss all attempts by Ukraine to internationalize the conflict situation and present it as Russia's inadequate actions. The new Ukrainian authorities had better recognize, to put it mildly, the fallaciousness of their predecessors' actions and resolve issues within the framework of the applicable law," Kosachev wrote on Facebook.
On November 25, Ukraine's Berdyansk and Nikopol gunboats, and the Yany Kapu tugboat illegally crossed the Russian maritime border as they sailed toward the Kerch Strait, the entrance to the Sea of Azov. Russia seized the Ukrainian vessels and detained crew members after they failed to respond to a demand to stop. After the incident, a criminal case on illegal border crossing was opened in Russia.
Moscow has repeatedly slammed Kiev's attempts to portray the detained sailors as prisoners of war, stressing that they faced criminal charges. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the incident was a provocation prepared in advance as a pretext to declare martial law in Ukraine, which was announced after the incident and lasted for a month. Putin said the provocation might have been linked to then-Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko's low approval ratings before the presidential election, which his rival Volodymyr Zelensky ultimately won.
