UN to publish Ukraine's official letter on sailors captured by Russia

18.01.2019 10:21

Ukrinform

Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Volodymyr Yelchenko wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on January 17, recalling that Russia should respect the rights of captured Ukrainian sailors in accordance with their status as prisoners of war, the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN has reported on Twitter.

He called for this letter to be distributed as an official document of the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council, an Ukrinform correspondent said.

"Ukraine demands the Russian Federation respects the rights of 24 Ukrainian sailors captured in the Black Sea on 25 November 2018, who enjoy the status of Prisoners of War under international humanitarian law," the mission quoted Yelchenko as saying.

Yelchenko also enclosed to his letter a statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, which emphasizes the absurdity and illegality of the "sentence" by Moscow's Lefortovo District Court as all 24 Ukrainian servicemen declared themselves prisoners of war and refused to give any evidence.

"The trial of these Ukrainian servicemen runs counter to international humanitarian law. […] According to the 1949 Third Geneva Convention, Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, there can be no dispute that these captured Ukrainian sailors have the legal status of Prisoners of War. We therefore strongly demand that the Russian Federation treats them in full accordance with their status and with full respect to their rights under international humanitarian law," the ministry's statement reads.

Yelchenko called on Guterres to publish this letter as an official document of the General Assembly and the Security Council.

Oleh Nikolenko, spokesman for the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations, said in an exclusive comment to Ukrinform that the distribution of this letter as an official document of the General Assembly is the duty, rather than the right of the Secretary-General.

"It will be published within the next few days after the completion of internal procedures in the UN Secretariat. Subsequently, all 193 UN member states will be able to study it," the Ukrainian diplomat said.

On January 15 and 16, the Lefortovo District Court of Moscow ruled to extend the arrest of 24 Ukrainian sailors seized by Russian troops in the Kerch Strait on November 25, 2018, for three months.