Bellingcat: Ukrainian ships were shelled in international waters

A group of journalists Bellingcat concluded that the Ukrainian ships, attacked by 25 in November by the ships of the border service of the FSB of Russia near the Kerch Strait, were shot at in international waters.

Фото: Depositphotos

Journalists arrived at this conclusion after examining publicly available photos and videos of the consequences of the conflict in the Kerch Strait, writes “Voice of America".

In particular, on one of the videos of the Russian TV channel Zvezda a few hundred meters from the captured Ukrainian artillery boat Berdyansk you can see a cargo ship that did not participate in the incident. Using MarineTraffic's vessel tracking site, Bellingcat determined that it was anchored in the Kerch Strait at the same place throughout the entire November 25. This made it possible to obtain data on the location of the Ukrainian ships during the attack on them by the Russian military and to conclude that the boat Berdyansk was “in 22,72 km from the coast of the Crimea and more than 500 meters outside the territorial waters declared by Russia”.

In addition, after analyzing the bullet holes at Berdyansk, the publication concluded that “Russian troops fired not in order to disable the ship, but in order to harm the crew directly.”

The investigation also said that the Russian border ship "Don" rammed the Ukrainian tug "Yany Kapu" at least four times - this is evidenced by the video and the nature of the damage.

At the same time, Bellingcat notes that, most likely, the Ukrainian ships at some moment entered both the declared by Russia as their territorial waters off the coast of the annexed Crimea, and into the Russian waters near the Kerch Strait. However, at the time of the shelling and detention they were already in international waters.

Ukraine claims that its ships have the right to freely pass the Kerch Strait under an agreement with Russia from 2003.

The investigation calls on Ukraine to provide additional information about the coordinates of the ships at the time of the attack on them. At the same time, the coordinates reported earlier by the FSB of Russia do not contradict the findings of Bellingcat.

Recall, November 26 The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted to impose martial law for a term of 30 days in the 10 regions of the country: Vinnitsa, Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya, Nikolaev, Odessa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Kherson, as well as on the territory of the Azov-Kerch inner waters water areas.

Decision on martial law received in connection with the act of aggression of Russia against Ukraine in the Kerch Strait. As a result of the illegal actions of the Russian security forces 25 November were captured three ships of the Ukrainian Navy and 24 captured Ukrainian soldiers. The Russians claim that the ships of the Ukrainian Navy invaded the "territorial waters of the Russian Federation." Ukrainians taken into custody until January 25 2019.

The youngest of the Russian sailors captured by Russia, Andrei Eider, is not yet 19 years old. According to relatives, this was the first guy’s entry into the sea, writes “Currently,".

In recent years, he lived with his grandmother in Odessa, where he graduated from the marine lyceum and went to the fleet. That flight, when the Russian military attacked the Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait, was the first flight of Andrew, was the third month of his service.

Andrey Eider
Screenshot from video

Andrei Eider’s grandmother Tatiana Shilova doesn’t move away from the TV. This is the only source of information about what is happening with her grandson and other Ukrainian sailors. Andrei's relatives also learned about the incident from a news release.

“When you see reports on TV about prisoners, about those killed, it’s hard to take it. But when it affected your child, your grandson, it cannot be conveyed!” says Tatyana Shilova.

19-year-old Andrei Eider served as a sailor on the Berdyansk boat. On November 25, he, along with 23 other sailors, was captured by Russian security forces. All this time, Andrey’s relatives have had no contact.

“We agreed with him: he goes on a flight and when he arrives in Berdyansk, he calls me back right away. But I see there has been no call for three days,” says his grandmother.

Grandmother Andrey Eider
Screenshot from video

In a small village near Odessa live mother and younger brother and sister Andrew. They do not even have his fresh photos - the family shows the album with the usual paper photos. The boy's mother explains that they do not have a camera, and Andrey kept digital pictures on a flash drive, which he always carried with him. She took her with him to the flight. The first in life.

“The first time I went to sea - and the first time I got caught!” Since the fifth grade, my dream was to become a sailor, and it remained so. He just didn’t realize it the way he intended,” says the guy’s mother, Victoria Eider.

According to her, Andrei did not want to go on this flight: “He could not explain why he did not want to go. Apparently he had a presentiment of something.”

Mother, brother and sister of Ader
Screenshot from video

Before going to sea, the guy called relatives, looking for support.

“I couldn’t give up at that moment either, I had to support him! And he tried to become limp. I told him: “Calm down, everything will be fine!”,” said the mother.

According to the Russian press, now Andrei Eider is in one of the hospitals of Kerch. He was operated on. Many Ukrainians in social networks write words of support to him and other sailors. Some are called a hero. But the mother does not welcome such epithets to her son.

“What a hero he is! He’s really just a kid who found himself in such a situation not even of his own free will! - she is indignant. - What, in a month and a half you can become a hero? Did he serve?

The command of the naval forces of Ukraine invited the relatives of all the captured sailors and together with them develops a unified strategy to rescue the prisoners. The meeting was held behind closed doors, the reporters were not given details.

Meanwhile, with the call to return the Ukrainian ships and sailors, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, said that he sees this as the only condition for holding a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

His words conveyed US Secretary of State Mark Pompeo in an interview CNN.

“The President decided that the right thing to do would be to tell the Russians to return Ukrainian sailors and ships - they belong to this country. People must return to their families. “He wanted to send a clear signal that the Russians must change their course of action,” Pompeo said, commenting cancellation of the meeting of Trump and Putin during the G20 summit.

He stressed that the only reason for the cancellation of the official meeting of Trump and Putin, which was to be held in Argentina during the G-20 meeting, was the situation in Ukraine.

“The President wanted to send a clear message that we find this behavior unacceptable, and we canceled the meeting,” Pompeo said.

The Secretary of State emphasized that he was personally involved in the decision to cancel the meeting. “I was involved in making this decision, we carefully assessed it, we weighed the options, discussed the message, and President Trump decided that this was the right thing to do based on the events leading up to the G20 summit,” the diplomat said.

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