Handover of seized ships: Ukrainian tugboats arrive in waiting area
“The monitoring group of the Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies, the editorial offices of BlackSeaNews and the Maidan of Foreign Affairs report that the tugboats arrived in the waiting area where the handover of captured Ukrainian Navy ships should take place (map 1) at 04:00 (Kyiv time) on November 18, 2019,” Chair of the Maidan of Foreign Affairs Supervisory Board Andrii Klymenko posted on Facebook.
As noted, this place is located 18 miles (33.3 km) due south of Cape Opuk on the Kerch Peninsula, i.e. in neutral waters. According to Klymenko, the point, where the Ukrainian military ships and the Ukrainian Navy tugboat were seized almost a year ago, is about 10 miles (18.5 km) east (map 2).
As reported, on November 25, 2018, Russian border guards fired on and seized three Ukrainian Navy ships, the Berdyansk, the Nikopol, and the Yany Kapu, heading from Odesa to Mariupol, near the Kerch Strait. In addition, their crewmembers, 24 Ukrainian sailors, were captured. Three of them were wounded. A Russian-controlled court in the occupied Crimea arrested all the detained Ukrainian sailors on charges of alleged illegal border crossing.
On May 25, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ordered Russia to immediately release 24 seamen and three ships and allow them to return to Ukraine.
On September 7, Ukraine and Russia exchanged detainees in the 35-for-35 format. Twenty-four Ukrainian seamen returned home as part of the exchange.
On November 16, Assistant to the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak announced the final stage of the return of three ships to Ukraine.
Ships are now being towed from the Kerch port to an agreed site for handover to the Ukrainian side, scheduled for November 18. The handover will take place in neutral waters.
The Titan, the Haydamaky and the Sapfir boats were sent from Odesa to deliver the seized ships.
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