OREANDA-NEWSHearings of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in the case of Ukrainian sailors detained for violating the Russian border, ended in Hamburg, the decision will be announced on May 25. This was reported on Friday by the agency "Ukrinform".

The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine, as it became known on April 16, on behalf of the President of the country Petro Poroshenko appealed to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in connection with the situation around the sailors. Ukraine has initiated two trials in this case: in a large lawsuit for which arbitration will be created, Ukraine will demand compensation from the Russian Federation for the arrest of military ships, and even before the start of the arbitration proceedings, Kiev will ask the court to make a quick decision on temporary measures.

In this connection, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the maritime law tribunal does not have jurisdiction for the “Kerch incident”. On 6 May, the Russian side notified the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg that Moscow would not participate in the hearings on the case. Due to the lack of Russian representatives, ITLOS reduced the hearings by one day. Earlier it was planned that they will be held on May 10 and 11.

Three ships of the Naval Forces of Ukraine on November 25 violated the order of passage of warships through the territorial waters of the Russian Federation when traveling from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. The legal requirements of the border guards to stop, as required by the procedure for the passage of the Kerch-Yenikalsky Canal, were ignored by the Ukrainian boats and the tug. They were detained and taken to Kerch, later the court arrested their crews on charges of illegally crossing the border of the Russian Federation.