The UN Tribunal ordered Russia to return to Ukraine the sailors and ships captured in the Kerch Strait

The UN International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, 25, passed a resolution in which ordered Russia to immediately release two Ukrainian warships and an auxiliary vessel and 24 Ukrainian sailors seized near the Kerch Strait in November 2018, and allow them to return to their homeland , reports “Interfax".

Фото: Depositphotos

The essence of the decision

“The tribunal demands that the Russian Federation release three Ukrainian ships and 24 detained Ukrainian sailors and allow them to return to Ukraine,” said court chairman Park Jin-hyun during the announcement of excerpts of the tribunal’s decision.

He added that “Russia and Ukraine need to refrain from measures that could aggravate the dispute over the incident in the Kerch Strait.”

Park Jin Hyun also said that the tribunal provides an opportunity for Russia and Ukraine to submit their versions of events in the Kerch Strait to the court.

“Ukraine and the Russian Federation must submit a report to the tribunal regarding paragraph 121 no later than June 25,” he said.

Paragraph 121 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea deals with islands and their territorial zones.

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However, the tribunal did not require Russia to suspend the proceedings in the case of the detained sailors.

“The court does not consider it necessary to require Russia to suspend criminal proceedings against 24 detained Ukrainian sailors,” said Park Jin Hyun.

At the same time, the court ordered Russia to return these sailors to their homeland.

The court explained that we are talking about ordering urgent “temporary measures” in this case. A request to take measures was received by the court from the Ukrainian side.

The court decision was made, despite the fact that the Russian representatives were not present at the meetings. In Moscow, they believe that this tribunal did not have the authority to consider the lawsuit that the Ukrainian side filed.

The court's decision It was rendered by a majority in 19 votes against one. Special opinion said the Russian judge Roman Kolodkin, whose objections boil down to the fact that the jurisdiction of the tribunal does not apply to this case.

The full text of the solution is available at link.

Фото: Depositphotos

The reaction of Russia

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia stated that the incident with the Ukrainian courts in the Kerch Strait region is not within the jurisdiction of international arbitration and that the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea cannot be involved in resolving the Moscow-Kiev dispute over this incident, writes “Interfax".

“The statements made by both Russia and Ukraine when signing and ratifying the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea exclude the possibility of using the dispute resolution procedures provided for by the Convention in relation to the incident of November 25, 2018 in the Kerch Strait area,” the diplomatic department said in a statement. Russia, distributed after the announcement of the tribunal's decision.

It notes that “at this stage we are not talking about the actual consideration of Ukraine’s claims.”

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“During the subsequent arbitration proceedings, we intend to consistently defend our position, including the lack of arbitration jurisdiction to consider this situation in the light of the circumstances mentioned above,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

History of conflict

On the morning of November 25, the Ukrainian small armored boats Berdyansk and Nikopol, as well as the tug Yana Kapu, began a planned transition from Odessa to Mariupol. At the Kerch Strait, they were met by Russian border ships, one of which rammed a Ukrainian tug. As a result, the Russian frontier guards with shooting captured three Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait area and 24 captured Ukrainian servicemen.

As stated in the FSB, they illegally crossed the Russian border and did not respond to the requirement to stop. The Ukrainian Navy said they had warned the Russian side in advance about the transition, but the Russian border guards did not respond to the message of the Ukrainian ships.

Ukrainian authorities have accused Russia of aggression. After this incident, on November 26, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted to introduce martial law for a period of 30 days in 10 regions of the country and in the territory of the inland waters of the Azov-Kerch water area.

November 29 US President Donald Trump canceled the meeting with the head of Russia Vladimir Putin, which was to be held in Argentina on the sidelines of the G20 summit. The reason for the cancellation was the situation with the Ukrainian ships captured in the Kerch Strait, explained Trump in his microblog Twitter.

30 November US senators saidthat Moscow’s actions are “provocative”, destabilize the region and cause further escalation of the conflict.

April 16 Ukraine 2019 appealed to the maritime tribunal with a request to take urgent action in relation to Russia, in order to free the Ukrainian sailors and ships seized in the Kerch Strait. Ukrainian sailors are still in Russian captivity, criminal proceedings have been initiated against them.

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