Ukraine's president asked UOC MP Head Onufriy to facilitate release of seamen captured by Russian
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko stresses that he had used and would continue to use all possible means to free Ukrainian sailors captured by Russia.
As reported by Censor.NET citing the presidential press office, the head of state says that he even appealed to the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP).
"Yesterday and the day before, I had a conversation with Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate Onufriy. I asked him to contact Moscow immediately in order to take appropriate church measures to return (our sailors - ed.). I will not waste any chance to return our soldiers. We will pray and hope that this will happen as soon as possible," Poroshenko said in an interview to the Lviv region-based Pershyi Zakhidnyi TV channel.
The president also said that immediately after receiving information on the shelling of Ukrainian ships, he had requested a talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin "in order to get an explanation of the actions of the Russian Armed Forces."
"You know that Putin avoids talking," Poroshenko said. He noted that after such a reaction of Russia, he had contacted a number of world leaders and leaders of international organizations. In particular, talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and many other leaders of the world and international organizations have been held.
The head of state reiterated that no Russian court has any jurisdiction over Ukrainian seamen, since they are prisoners of war in accordance with the Geneva Convention.
"They must be released immediately. Otherwise, Russia will be brought to justice," he said.
The president stressed that Ukraine demanded the immediate release of Ukrainian ships, opening of the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov, as well as termination of partial occupation of the Sea of Azov.
On Nov. 25, Russian border vessels committed aggressive actions against three Ukrainian ships that set sail from the port of Odesa to the port of Mariupol in the Azov Sea. After that, Russian special forces opened fire on the Ukrainian tugboat Yany Kapu, small armored artillery boats Berdiansk and Nikopol in the Kerch Strait and seized them. There were 23 sailors on board the ships, and six of them were wounded.
Russia announced its intention to try detained Ukrainian sailors for allegedly illegal crossing of the Russian state border.
On Nov. 26, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on the situation in Ukraine related to the latest developments in the Black and Azov Seas.
Later on the same day, Ukraine's parliament gave the green light to a presidential decree on the introduction of martial law for 30 days in 10 regions of Ukraine – Vinnytsia region, Luhansk region, Mykolaiv region, Odesa region, Sumy region, Kharkiv region, Chernihiv region, Kherson region, Donetsk region and Zaporizhia region, as well as the inland waters of the Azov-Kerch water area.
On Nov. 28, the Russian rubberstamp district court of Simferopol city in Crimea arrested 24 Ukrainian sailors, who had been captured by Russian FSB near the Kerch Strait, for two months. They all face six years in prison.
