Andriy Artemenko, Andriy Eider and Vasyl Soroka, the wounded Ukrainian sailors will undergo medical examination at a hospital - not in the remand centre in Moscow where they are held now. Lyudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian parliamentary envoy for human rights reported that on Facebook.
'According to Russian envoy for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova, three wounded Ukrainian POWs, seamen Andriy Artemenko, Andriy Eider and Vasyl Soroka will be sent for an examination at a hospital. Finally, Russia listened to the calls of Ukraine and the entire civilized world to provide them with the medical assistance', Denisova wrote.
She added she'd hoped that there would be something more than mere statements by Moskalkova; over three months of detention in the Russian prison, the seamen have not had any access to the qualified treatment.
On November 25, the coast guard ships of the Russian Navy attacked the ships of the Ukrainian Navy, which have been carrying out a scheduled transition from Odesa port to Mariupol port in the Sea of Azov. Ukrainian ships were rejected passage via the Kerch Strait, Russian coast guards opened aimed fire on them.
All 24 sailors on board were captured and delivered to Moscow – 21 of them were delivered to Lefortovo remand center, another - to the hospital of Matrosskaya Tishina prison.
On December 3, the Russian prosecutors officially accused Ukrainian sailors with the 'illegal crossing of the state border' during the attack in the Kerch Strait.
Facing an extension of the sentence term, Ukrainian POWs detained in the Kerch Strait refused to testify in Lefortovo court. Sailors were distributed into six groups, four people in each. On January 15, 2019, Moscow's Lefortovo district court decided to keep 20 Ukrainian sailors in remand until April 24. On January 16, the court extended the detention term for another 4 sailors.