Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that Kiev will be able to “crush” the Russian Federation with legal arguments in the court in The Hague on the incident in the Black Sea in 2018.
“We press with iron logic of legal arguments… Nice and in accordance with international law. Let it take a little longer … But the consequences for violators will be more than serious and lasting,” Kuleba wrote in a column for the “Ukrainian Truth” publication.
In his opinion, the judicial victory in this case is important not only for Ukraine, but for the whole world as a whole: “It will be a signal for the international community and individual states – the rules must not be violated,” Kuleba added.
Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Kiev’s requirements to consider the incident in the Kerch Strait in the arbitration tribunal in The Hague go beyond the jurisdiction of arbitration. The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that this is another Kiev abuse of international means of peaceful settlement of disputes “in order to challenge sovereignty over Crimea.”
Two boats “Nikopol” and “Berdyansk”, as well as the tugboat “Yany Kapu” of the Ukrainian Navy on November 25, 2018 violated the Russian border, entered the temporarily closed water area of the territorial sea of the Russian Federation and moved from the Black Sea to the Kerch Strait. They maneuvered dangerously, did not obey the legal demands of the Russian authorities. The ships with the soldiers who violated the border of the Russian Federation were detained. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the incident in the Black Sea a provocation associated with the low rating of Petro Poroshenko, who was then president of Ukraine, on the eve of the elections. On September 7, 2019, the military who violated the border were handed over to Ukraine within the framework of agreements on the simultaneous release of detainees and convicts.
Russia on November 18, 2019 handed over three ships to the Ukrainian side. The Commander of the Ukrainian Navy, Admiral Igor Voronchenko, complained about the condition of these ships, stating that “the Russians killed them,” the equipment, even plafonds and sockets, were allegedly removed from them. The FSB had earlier assured that Ukraine had received its boats in “normal condition and with serviceable plumbing,” and released video footage in support of this.