Ukrainian sailors
have been delivered from the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center to Vnukovo
Airport.
MOSCOW, September 7.
/TASS/. The exchange procedure for citizens arrested and convicted in Russia
and Ukraine has started, the lawyer of one of the Ukrainian sailors Nikolai
Polozov told TASS.
"Ukrainian
sailors have been delivered from the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center to
Vnukovo Airport, which is why it is safe to say that the exchange has
started," he said.
Preparations for
exchange of detainees between Moscow and Kiev intensified after Vladimir
Zelensky was elected Ukrainian President. The active stage of negotiations and
formalization of legal procedures regarding the citizens of the two countries
to be put on the list started a couple of weeks ago. On September 5, Russian
President Vladimir Putin said that the exchange would be large-scale and can serve
as a step towards improving the bilateral relationship.
On November 25, 2018,
three Ukrainian naval ships violated the rules of passage from the Black Sea to
the Sea of Azov. The intruding Ukrainian vessels illegally crossed the Russian
state border, trespassed into Russian territorial waters and conducted
dangerous maneuvers. In defiance of repeated warnings and demands to halt, the
Ukrainian ships carried on violating the law, which drove Russian forces to
fire on them in order to get them to stop. As a result, all three ships were
detained. A criminal case was opened over the violation of the Russian state
border, with 24 sailors arrested.
Source: ITAR-TASS
07-09-2019
