On May 25, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), which is based in Hamburg, Germany, issued its ruling on the case filed by Ukraine against Russia in the matter of the Ukrainian servicemen and ships seized near the Kerch Strait on November 25, 2018. By a vote of 19 to 1, the court ruled: 1) “The Russian Federation shall immediately release the Ukrainian naval vessels Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yani Kapu, and return them to the custody of Ukraine” and 2) “The Russian Federation shall immediately release the 24 detained Ukrainian servicemen and allow them to return to Ukraine.” The lone judge voting against the ruling was Russian. The bad news is that, though the maritime court’s decisions are legally binding, there is no enforcement mechanism.
As reported by our Kyiv correspondent, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Olena Zerkal had cogently argued at the maritime court that Moscow violated the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea when its naval forces detained the 22 Ukrainian sailors and two Security Service officers who were aboard the three vessels en route to Mariupol from Odesa.
Russia did not participate in the proceedings before the tribunal. The Kremlin, you see, maintains that the ships were in Russian territorial waters. The strait lies between the Russian mainland and Russian-occupied Crimea, over which Russia constructed the Kerch Bridge. Since its takeover of Crimea and invasion of the Donbas, Russia has been restricting shipping and harassing vessels in the shared waters of the Azov and Black seas that are recognized as such by bilateral and international treaties.
Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, reacted to the ITLOS ruling by noting that Russia’s implementation of the court’s order could be “a first signal of… willingness to stop the conflict with Ukraine. By returning the servicemen and vessels, Mr. Zelensky said Russia can “make the first step towards unblocking the negotiations and resolving the problems it created in a civilized way.” He added: “We’ll see what will be the choice of the Kremlin. Still, we are looking forward to welcome our men back at home!”
The answer from Russia came soon enough. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia rejects the ruling and would continue to “consistently defend its point of view” that the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea does not apply in this case. Moreover, on May 27, a Moscow court upheld a decision to extend the pretrial detention of the 24 Ukrainian servicemen until July. The men face trial on preposterous charges of “aggravated illegal crossing of the state border of the Russian Federation.”
We remind our readers that there are now 115 citizens of Ukraine who are political prisoners in Russia and on the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula of Ukraine. On May 30, according to the Official Website of Ukraine’s President, Mr. Zelensky met with relatives and friends of the Ukrainians held captive by Russian authorities and informed them that he’d held meetings with Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights Lyudmyla Denisova, Chief of the General Staff Ruslan Khomchak and former representatives of Ukraine in the Trilateral Contact Group in order to become acquainted with the issues involved in obtaining the prisoners’ freedom. The president emphasized the importance of cooperation between the authorities, relatives of prisoners of war and representatives of the public: “We need a consolidated position and coordination of efforts of all human rights activists, representatives of civic organizations, volunteers for the return of our captives.”
Coordination – and escalation – of efforts is certainly needed to secure the release of Ukraine’s seamen and all political prisoners held by Russia. At the same time, in the wake of the ITLOS ruling, the world must hear Ukraine’s SOS: Save our servicemen. And the international community should increase sanctions against Russia in response to yet another egregious violation of international law.