Translated material
A UN court ordered Russia to release Ukrainian sailors. Russia is not going to obey
The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg ruled in the case of Ukrainian sailors captured by Russian border guards in the Kerch Strait in November 2018. The court ruling says that Russia must release both the sailors and the three Ukrainian ships. Russia does not recognize the proceedings as legitimate.
What's happened. The UN International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) agreed with the demands of Ukraine, whose representatives filed a lawsuit against Russia. According to the court decision, Russia must immediately release 24 sailors and three Ukrainian warships seized in the Kerch Strait and ensure their return to Ukraine. The decision specifically emphasizes that both sides must refrain from further hostile actions that could lead to an escalation of tension in the strait.
- 19 out of 20 judges voted for the decision, only the representative of Russia Roman Kolodkin voted against. At the same time, the Russian side did not participate in the proceedings.
- The official position of Russia: the dispute is beyond the jurisdiction of the Hamburg Tribunal, since the Convention on the Law of the Sea, which guides the court, does not apply to warships engaged in hostilities.
- The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russia would continue to defend its position, including in terms of the jurisdiction of the incident to the Hamburg Tribunal. Experts interviewed by RIA Novosti recalled that Russia acceded to the Convention on the Law of the Sea with the proviso that the jurisdiction of the Hamburg Tribunal would not be mandatory for it when it comes to national security or sovereignty.
- Since 2015, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation has been able to allow Russian state bodies not to comply with decisions of international courts.
Why is it important. 24 Ukrainian sailors and three ships - two artillery boats and a tugboat - were captured by Russian border guards while trying to enter the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait on November 25, 2018. The fate of the sailors became one of the main points of controversy between Ukraine and Russia, and the incident gave rise to new sanctions for Western countries . In Russia, the crews of Ukrainian ships face 6 years in prison for violating the Russian border.
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In his first speech after the announcement of the results of the second round of the presidential elections in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky called the release of the captured sailors his number one task.