MOSCOW. Feb 13 (Interfax) - The Moscow City Court has upheld the decision to extend the pretrial arrest of Denis Hrytsenko, the commander of the 24 Ukrainian sailors detained in the Kerch Strait, and Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) officer Andriy Drach until April 24, an Interfax correspondent reported.
"The ruling of the Lefortovo District Court of Moscow, which extended the periods in custody of Denis Hrytsenko, Andriy Drach, Viacheslav Zinchenko, and Mykhailo Vlasiuk, remains unaltered, and the defense's appeals are rejected," the ruling reads.
The hearing was closed to the public.
The court also upheld the extension of the arrests of the commander of the armored boat Nikopol, Bohdan Nebylitsa, and crewmembers Yuriy Bezyazychny, Yuriy Budzylo, and Serhiy Chulib until April 24.
The court had upheld similar rulings for eight Ukrainian sailors: Andriy Shevchenko, Bohdan Holovash, Serhiy Popov, Volodymyr Tereshchenko, the armored gunboat Berdyansk's commander Roman Mokriak, and crewmembers Yevhen Semidotskiy, Andriy Oprysko, and Serhiy Tsybizov.
The remaining eight sailors will have their appeals heard on a different day.
On November 25, 2018, Russian border guards used weapons to stop three Ukrainian naval vessels, the Yany Kapu tug and the Berdyansk and Nikopol armored gunboats, which were traveling from Odesa to Mariupol in the Kerch Strait. The vessels were escorted to Kerch.
There were 24 Ukrainians, including two officers of the Security Service of Ukraine, aboard the vessels. They are all charged illegally crossing Russia's state border.
Kyiv considers the detained sailors prisoners of war. The Russian authorities say they cannot be regarded as POWs, as they are charged with a crime and Russia and Ukraine are not in a state of war or military conflict.