Ukrainian deputy foreign minister Zerkal: Russia wants closed hearings at ITLOS

The first procedural hearings at the ITLOS over the immunity of three Ukrainian ships and 24 crewmembers (Ukraine v. Russia) ended in The Hague on November 21. The parties exchanged positions and arguments.
“It is symbolic that today, on the Day of Dignity and Freedom, we defend the freedom and dignity of Ukraine and our sailors at the arbitration ‘site’ in The Hague. These hearings relate to our ships and sailors captured by Russia a year ago, but they are procedural in nature,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Olena Zerkal on Facebook on November 21.

She added that the ITLOS would adopt its first decision and approve the rules of operation on November 22, determine the name of the case and the principles of transparency, namely the possibility of public access to case files and the possibility of broadcasting the hearings online.

“We insist that the case is urgent because the criminal cases against the sailors are ongoing despite the fact that Russia released them in September. That is, Russia continues to deny the immunity of Ukrainian sailors. Three days ago – almost a year after they were captured on November 25, 2018 – Russia freed our ships, having appropriated weapons, communications equipment and documents from them. Thus, the Russian Federation continues to violate the Order of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea of May 25, 2019 and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Tribunal must put an end to this violation. Therefore, Ukraine requires a final, binding decision on finding the Russian Federation guilty of violating a number of the Convention articles,” Zerkal emphasized.

According to her, the Russian Federation is trying to make the hearings closed.

“Although the subject of the case is one simple issue — a flagrant violation of the fundamental principle of international maritime law by Russia — the absolute immunity of military ships and their crews, the Russian Federation is trying to get as much time for considering this case as in the case over the violation of the rights of a coastal state in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov and in the Kerch Strait. In addition, Russia wants to make the hearings as closed as possible,” the deputy foreign minister noted.

As reported, on November 25, 2018, Russian border guards fired on and seized three Ukrainian Navy ships, the Berdyansk, the Nikopol, and the Yany Kapu, heading from Odesa to Mariupol, near the Kerch Strait. In addition, their crewmembers, 24 Ukrainian sailors, were captured. Three of them were wounded. A Russian-controlled court in the occupied Crimea arrested the detained Ukrainian sailors on charges of alleged illegal border crossing.

On May 25, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ordered Russia to immediately release 24 seamen and three ships and allow them to return to Ukraine.

On September 7, Ukraine and Russia exchanged detainees in the 35-for-35 format. Twenty-four Ukrainian seamen returned home as part of the exchange.

On November 18, 2019, the Russian Federation handed over the Berdyansk, the Nikopol, and the Yany Kapu ships to Ukraine in the Black Sea waters.

On November 20, the ships arrived at the Ukrainian port of Ochakiv.