Moscow City Court Approves Arrest Extension for 6 Kerch Strait Sailors

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Moscow City Court has upheld a three-month arrest extension for six of the 24 Ukrainian nationals who were detained in the Kerch Strait for illegally crossing the Russian maritime border late last year, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the court on Friday.

"The Lefortovo court’s July 17 ruling to be kept unchanged, the appeal in not to be granted," the judge said.

In July, the Lefortovo court in Moscow granted the Russian Federal Security Service’s request to extend the terms of the arrest of the six sailors for three months.

On November 25, 2018, two small armored gunboats of the Ukrainian Navy, Berdyansk and Nikopol, along with the Yany Kapu tug-boat crossed the Russian maritime border in the Black Sea, disregarding warnings from the Russian coast guard, which ended up arresting the 22 sailors and two members of the Ukrainian Security Service who were on board the vessels.