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On July 14, 2019, a captured Ukrainian sailor, midshipman Andriy Shevchenko marks his birthday, Ukrinform reported with reference to the press service of the Naval Forces of Ukraine.
“Midshipman Andriy Shevchenko marks his birthday on July 14. Unfortunately, not with his family, but in Russian captivity. This say is not just birthday of a defender for Ukrainians, it’s another day of Ukraine’s patriots for the national struggle, for legality and justice in the Ukrainian Black Sea and the Sea of Azov,” the statement says.
The Navy noted that Andriy Shevchenko, just as all those who dedicatedly defend Ukraine today, has become a model of courage for younger generations.
Andriy Shevchenko was born in 1991 in the village of Shyroke, Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district, Odesa region. In 2011 he graduated from the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Fish Technical School and signed a contract with the Naval Forces of Ukraine. He lives in Odessa and has a small daughter.
On November 25, 2018, Russian border guards fired one and then captured three Ukrainian naval ships: Berdiansk, Nikopol and Yany Kapu, which were sailing from Odesa to Mariupol. 24 members of the crew were captured as a result of the seizure, three were wounded during the attack.
Russian-controlled Crimean Kerch Court charged all detained Ukrainian soldiers for allegedly crossing the Russian border illegally. Currently they all are being held in Lefortovo prison in Moscow.
On January 24, 2019, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution demanding Russia to treat Ukrainian sailors captured near the Kerch Strait in accordance with the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War.
On May 25, 2019, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ordered Russia to immediately release the 24 sailors and return the Ukrainian vessels. The Foreign Ministry of Russia responded that the Kerch incident does not fall under the ITLOS jurisdiction.
