By the end of November, Russia can return to Ukraine the ships detained in the Kerch Strait

Russia will transfer to Ukraine the armored boats Berdyansk and Nikopol and the Tug's tug Yana Kapu, detained after the incident in the Kerch Strait on November 25, 2018. According to the sources of Kommersant , this should happen before the Summit in the Norman format , which is scheduled for December 9 in Paris.

The ships will be returned with standard weapons, but without ammunition. Personal weapons of Ukrainian sailors, walkie -talkies and ship documents remain material evidence in the criminal case instituted in Russia on violation of the state border (part 3 of article 322 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Presumably the return of the courts may take place next week at the agreed point at sea, and not in the port. Negotiations are conducted by law enforcement agencies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Ukraine.

Last week, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry sent a note to the Russian Federation demanding to return ships. After receiving them, the Ukrainian side intends to inspect the vessels and find out if the delay in the return of ships with their repair to conceal traces of shelling is related. The Federation Council said that to return the courts, Ukraine will have to recognize the incident in the Kerch Strait by provocation.

The Russian Foreign Ministry, commenting on the publication of Kommersant, said that the transfer of detained ships to Ukraine is not linked with a summit in the Norman format, and the country can take its vessels "at any time" under the guarantee of their preservation as material evidence, Interfax reports.

In May, the UN International Tribunal, UNDERSTANDING, obliged the Russian Federation to return the detained sailors and ships to Ukraine. In September, 24 sailors returned to their homeland as part of the exchange of holding persons between Russia and Ukraine. Lawyer Nikolai Polozov, who defended the sailors, said that he would petition the FSB to terminate the criminal case and the persecution of his defendants due to the lack of corpus delicti.

According to Kommersant, the court intends to consider the case of sailors in absentia. The Prosecutor General of Russia at the request of the FSB should request the extradition of the liberated sailors, and having received a refusal (Ukraine does not give out its citizens), make a decision that the relevant negotiations have come to a dead end and the case is subject to the court without the defendants.

In the case of absentee proceedings for the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisov, who was entrusted with the exchange for each of the sailors before the FSB investigator, a penalty of up to 10 thousand rubles may be imposed. Polozov hopes that the case will nevertheless close, and Ukraine will be transferred not only by detained vessels, but also by other material evidence.

Ukrainian ships were detained on the way from Odessa to the port of Mariupol in the Sea of ​​Azov. According to the Russian Federation, they illegally entered the territorial waters of the country. During the clash, Russian border guards used weapons, injuring three Ukrainian sailors. The FSB called the incident a provocation and two days after the incident demonstrated the documents allegedly withdrawn from Ukrainian sailors, ordering it to secretly move from Odessa to Berdyansk, and provide special secrecy from the Kerchic-Senikal Canal.

Kyiv believes that the courts were not required, and the border ships of the Russian Federation, contrary to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Agreement between the two countries on cooperation in the use of the Sea of ​​Azov and the Kerch Strait, carried out "aggressive actions" against the ships of the Ukrainian Navy.