Lyudmyla Denisova, the Parliamentary Envoy for Human Rights, is to come to Moscow in order to participate in the hearing of the case concerning the POW sailors to the court in Lefortovo. Ukrainian ombudsman posted this on Facebook.
“I am coming to Moscow by train now. I intend to visit the hearing of the Lefortovo court concerning prolonging of the detaining of 24 our sailors,” the report said.
According to Denisova, she hopes to meet FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov and adviser of the President of the Russian Federation, Head the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, Mikhail Fedotov.
Ukrainian Parliamentary Envoy for Human Rights intends to insist on the right to visit Ukrainian sailors, who have been illegally kept in Russia for five months.
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, the rest came to the hospital of Matrosskaya Tishina prison.
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.
