Zelensky calls on Putin to release Ukrainian seamen

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to release Ukrainian prisoner of war sailors and return them to their parents.

He stated this at a briefing on Thursday, June 27, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"I want to address President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin: 'We all have children. Return children to their parents'," Zelensky said, switching to Russian.

Prior to that, Zelensky expressed his indignation at the fact that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin had responded without any consent to a note from the Russian Foreign Ministry regarding the release of Ukrainian seamen in accordance with the decision of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

June 25 was the deadline for Russia to inform the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea about the implementation of its order on the release of 24 Ukrainian sailors and three military ships and their return to their homeland.

On November 25, 2018, Russian security forces fired on and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels that were en route from Odesa to Mariupol, as well as their crew, off the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea. Twenty-four Ukrainians were captured, three of them injured.

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