The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has suspended its preliminary investigation into the case of the Ukrainian sailors who were detained by Russia after an incident in the Kerch Strait, near Crimea, and later returned to Ukraine, Nikolai Polozov, a lawyer representing the sailors, said on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th January, 2020) The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has suspended its preliminary investigation into the case of the Ukrainian sailors who were detained by Russia after an incident in the Kerch Strait, near Crimea, and later returned to Ukraine, Nikolai Polozov, a lawyer representing the sailors, said on Monday.
In November 2018, three Ukrainian ships breached the Russian border, entered the temporarily closed Russian maritime area moving toward the Kerch Strait and refused to comply with the demands of the Russian authorities. The ships and their crews were detained. The incident led to Russia launching a criminal case into the illegal border crossing. The crews were sent back to Ukraine in early September 2019 as part of a bilateral agreement on the simultaneous release of detainees.
"Today, an FSB investigator informed us about the adopted procedural decision to suspend the preliminary investigation in the case of the Ukrainian military sailors. The grounds and motives of the adopted procedural decision will be known after the defense receives a copy of the investigator's ruling," Polozov wrote on Facebook.
Last November, the FSB suspended the examination of the materials in the criminal case by the Ukrainian sailors' defense and returned to the investigation stage due to the transfer of the three vessels to the Ukrainian side.
After the ships were handed over, Commander of the Ukrainian Navy Adm. Ihor Voronchenko claimed that some equipment was missing. In addition, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he would ask Moscow to return the missing equipment and weapons. Polozov, in turn, told Sputnik that the equipment and weapons from the ships were removed, as they were recognized as evidence in a criminal case.
