Moscow's Lefortovo District Court has satisfied investigators' motion and decided to keep all 24 Ukrainian sailors in custody for another three months, until July 24.
The court hearings on the sailors were held on Wednesday, according to an UNIAN correspondent.
The detainees were split into six groups of four. The court heard the cases of first three groups in the morning, then hearings on the other 12 sailors were held in the afternoon.
All hearings were held behind closed doors.
Read alsoUkraine pays almost US$3,600 to each family of 24 Ukrainian sailors captured by Russia
Relatives from Ukraine and diplomats from Ukraine and Western countries arrived to support the Ukrainian prisoners of war.
UNIAN memo. On the morning of November 25, 2018, Russia blocked the passage to the Kerch Strait for the Ukrainian tugboat "Yany Kapu" and two armored naval boats "Berdyansk" and "Nikopol," which were on a scheduled re-deployment from the Black Sea port of Odesa to the Azov Sea port of Mariupol.
The Ukraine Navy Command noted that the Russian side had been informed of the plans to re-deploy the vessels in advance in accordance with international standards to ensure the safety of navigation. The Russian coast guard ship "Don" rammed the Ukrainian tugboat, damaging the Ukrainian vessel. As the Ukrainian boats were heading back in the Odesa direction after being rejected passage via the Kerch Strait, Russian coast guards opened aimed fire on them.
All 24 crew members on board were captured and later remanded in custody for two months, being charged with "illegal border crossing" (the sailors are facing up to six years in prison). Three crewmen were wounded in the attack. Russian-controlled "courts" in occupied Crimea ruled that all 24 detainees should be remanded in custody, after which they were transferred to the Moscow-based Lefortovo and Matrosskaya Tishina detention centers.
Moscow's Lefortovo district court in the middle of January 2019 decided to keep the Ukrainian sailors in remand until the end of April 2019.
