The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said in a statement on Thursday that it had detained in the Izmail commercial port in Odessa region Russian tanker NEYMA that allegedly blocked passage of Ukrainian vessels in the Kerch Strait in November
KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th July, 2019) The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said in a statement on Thursday that it had detained in the Izmail commercial port in Odessa region Russian tanker NEYMA that allegedly blocked passage of Ukrainian vessels in the Kerch Strait in November.
"The SBU and the Military Prosecutor's Office have detained Russian tanker NEYMA that blocked Ukrainian military vessels in the Kerch Strait," the SBU said.
As Ukraine is carrying out a pre-trial proceeding, 15 top-level Russian military officials have already been informed that they are suspects in the case, the SBU stressed.
A team of SBU investigators, military prosecutors and border guards have already conducted some investigation activities on the seized tanker, which the Ukrainian court has approved. They have carried out search, have seized documents, recordings of radio communications and logbooks. Crew members have been questioned. The vessel has been recognized as material evidence, and a petition for the court is being prepared in order to arrest it.
In November 2018, 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 24 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.
