Moscow's stance on the Kerch Strait incident remains unchanged, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday in the wake of a related ruling passed by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), adding that the fate of the detained Ukrainian sailors should be determined by investigators and court
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th May, 2019) Moscow's stance on the Kerch Strait incident remains unchanged, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday in the wake of a related ruling passed by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), adding that the fate of the detained Ukrainian sailors should be determined by investigators and court.
The Hamburg-based ITLOS demanded on Saturday that Russia release the Ukrainian warships seized in the Kerch Strait for illegally crossing the Russian border in November. However, the tribunal noted that it did not demand that criminal prosecution of 24 detained sailors be terminated. Moscow previously informed the ITLOS that it would not take part in the hearings since the tribunal did not have jurisdiction to consider Ukraine's claims.
"The position cannot change. The investigation into the breach of the border act should conclude and a trial should take place," Peskov told Russia's Vedomosti newspaper, asked if Moscow's position changed in light of the tribunal's ruling.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, commenting on the ITLOS' judgment, that Moscow would continue defending its position in future arbitration proceedings based on the tribunal's lack of jurisdiction to consider the case.
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.
