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Russia may be willing to return the 24 sailors it’s held captive since November.
Izvestia, a Russian news website, reported that according to a high-ranking Russian source in diplomatic circles, Moscow would release the captive sailors after receiving written guarantees from the Ukrainian government.
On November 25, 2018, Russian border ships fired on and seized three Ukrainian naval vessels near the Kerch Strait that were heading from the port of Odesa to the port of Mariupol. The ships and the sailors aboard them were taken.
According to the Russian source, Moscow could release the sailors although there’s been no talk of stopping their criminal prosecution.
“As soon as the relevant persons in Russia receive the necessary document from Ukraine and study it, it will be possible to discuss further steps. But we did haven’t refused,” he said.
Nikolai Polozov, the Ukrainian sailors’ lawyer, said that Ukraine has already begun putting together a document. Lyudmila Denisova, the Verkhovna Rada’s human rights representative, sent a petition of personal guarantee through the Russian Foreign Ministry to the Investigation Department of the FSB.
“In a Russian note (from June 25) it was stated that it is necessary to provide written guarantees in accordance with the criminal procedure legislation of the Russian Federation. A personal surety is a form of guaranteeing the participation of a person who was not sentenced in court and investigative actions,” he said.
According to Polozov, currently, these documents are in the Investigation Department of the FSB but have not yet reached the executor — the investigator in charge of the case.
“It is he who should, within the time limit established by the law – three days – make a decision on this matter,” the defender said.
If the petition is satisfactory, the sailors will be released from custody and if a refusal is received, the ruling can be appealed, Polozov said.
“In fact, the proposals of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation that was stated in the note are being implemented in practice. Naturally, after a telephone conversation between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, the appropriate form of a guarantee was filed,” Polozov said.
