ITLOS to make decision on Ukraine's lawsuit against Russia on May 25

ITLOS President Jin-Hyun Paik said this at a hearing on Friday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

At the end of the hearing, Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Olena Zerkal announced Ukraine's demand that Russia immediately release the vessels and return them to Ukraine, suspend criminal proceedings against 24 detained Ukrainian servicemen and refrain from initiating new proceedings against them, release the detained seamen and allow them to return to Ukraine.

Russia refused to participate in the hearing.

According to Ukraine's statement of claim of April 16, 2019, on November 25, 2018, "the Russian Federation assumed control of, and detained, three Ukrainian naval vessels – the 'Berdiansk,' the 'Nikopol,' and the 'Yany Kаpu' - and their complement of twenty-four servicemen. At the time of their seizure, the Ukrainian vessels were in the Black Sea, traveling toward their home port of Odesa." In its request for provisional measures, Ukraine alleges a violation, by the Russian Federation, "of the sovereign immunity accorded to warships, naval auxiliary vessels, and their passengers and crew under Articles 32, 58, 95, and 96 of the Convention and customary international law," the Tribunal said in a press release.

By a notification addressed to the Russian Federation on April 1, 2019, Ukraine submitted the dispute to arbitral proceedings provided for in Annex VII to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Pursuant to article 290, paragraph 5, of the Convention, pending the constitution of an arbitral tribunal any party to the dispute may request the ITLOS to prescribe provisional measures to preserve the respective rights of the parties to the dispute or to prevent serious harm to the marine environment. The Tribunal may prescribe provisional measures if it considers that, prima facie, the arbitral tribunal to be constituted would have jurisdiction and that the urgency of the situation so requires.

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