MOSCOW. Feb 13 (Interfax) - Investigators have asked doctors at the Lefortovo detention facility to examine the three Ukrainian sailors who were injured in the Kerch Strait incident in order to determine what medical treatment they require.
"The investigators themselves asked doctors at the Lefortovo detention facility to examine the injured sailors to determine what treatment they need," Nikolai Polozov, who is coordinating the defense for the 24 captured sailors, told reporters on Wednesday.
"We filed a petition for their transfer to Ukraine or a third country for medical treatment, or, alternatively, to a hospital in the Russian Federation. That petition was turned down," Polozov said.
Chronic conditions of some of the sailors have worsened during their time in custody, but "these issues are now being dealt with," he said.
The earlier suspicion that one of them, Andriy Eider, had hepatitis B turned out to be wrong, the lawyer said. "The results of follow-up analyses did not confirm that diagnosis," Polozov said.
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.