Russia sends imprisoned Ukrainian sailors for a new medical examination
Russia set a new technical examination for the detained sailors from the ships Berdyansk and Nikopol which were seized in the Kerch Strait, reported lawyer Nikolai Polozov reported on Facebook.
The Russian investigators had already presented the decision to conduct the medical examination to all imprisoned sailors and their lawyer.
Polozov stressed that the lawyers objected to the examination. "This expertise is a kind of know-how of the Russian investigation. Experts are required to give a legal assessment of the evidence presented by the investigation, although this is the prerogative of the court," he wrote on Facebook.
Polozov also wrote that the Ukrainian sailors are interrogated almost daily, including holidays. May 6, 7, 8 were not an exception.
On 25 November last year, Russia attacked and captured the Ukrainian military boats Berdyansk and Nikopol and the tugboat Yany Kapu in neutral waters. All 24 Ukrainians on board were accused of violating the Russian state border, arrested, and transferred from Kerch to Moscow. Ukraine considered this an act of military aggression, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recognized the captured sailors as prisoners of war.
US President Donald Trump canceled his planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin because of the Kerch Strait incident. US Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker similarly called off his scheduled negotiation session with Russian Presidential Aide Vladislav Surkov.
Oleksandr Turchynov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in December that Ukraine had invited its international partners to take part in a passage of naval ships from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait. The Russian media warned that this could “aggravate the situation”.