67 international ships were detained for examination by Russian sailors in Kerch Strait since the beginning of 2019. Ukrainian News report that, citing Oleg Slobodyan, spokesman for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.
According to Slobodyan, there were no Ukrainian ships among those detained for examination as they do very little navigation in the Kerch Strait. All the detained ships stood for Ukrainian ports.
“The number of the ships with Ukrainian flags in the Kerch Strait is negligible. Currently, foreign ships go through the strait with fewer disturbances,” Oleg Slobodyan said.
As we reported earlier, Russian Investigation Committee opened a criminal proceeding against the officer of Ukraine’s Security Service and Military Prosecutor’s Office of the Southern region for investigation started by the Ukrainian law enforcers against seven Russia servicemen due to aggression in Kerch Strait.
The criminal cases were opened for “involvement of knowingly innocent Russia’s citizens from the military staff of the Defence Ministry and Russia’s Security Service Border Guard establishment.”
The representatives of the Investigation Committee stated that the Russians did not perform any illegal actions in Kerch Strait, they were “performing duties on the protection of the state border in compliance with the international norms and Russian legislation.”