Ukrainian side will work to fulfill the Azov package with content and enhance it in the future.

Council of the European Union has agreed on the Azov package of the sanctions against the Russian Federation as 112 Ukraine reported citing Deputy Head of the Administration of the President of Ukraine Kostyantyn Yeliseev.

“Our partaking in the conference coincided with the preparation of the EU to the session of the Council of the European Union, which took place today. It is fundamentally important that the EU finally made an important decision on the new Azov package of the sanctions after some pause,” Yeliseev said.

He reminded about the sanctions, which were earlier imposed against the Russian Federation.

“Thus, we have the package of the sanctions connected with the occupation of Crimea, the second one with aggression in Donbas and the third now is tied with the situation in Azov. Of course, it is only the beginning, we will not stop on it,” he said.

Yeliseev expressed the confidence that the Ukrainian side will work “to fulfill the Azov package with content and enhance it” in the future.

On November 25, the coast guard ships of the Russian Navy attacked the ships of the Ukrainian Navy, which have been carrying out a scheduled transition from Odesa port to Mariupol port in the Sea of Azov. Ukrainian ships were rejected passage via the Kerch Strait, Russian coast guards opened aimed fire on them.

All 24 sailors on board were captured and delivered to Moscow – 21 of them were delivered to Lefortovo remand center, another - to the hospital of Matrosskaya Tishina prison.

On December 3, the Russian prosecutors officially accused Ukrainian sailors with the 'illegal crossing of the state border' during the attack in the Kerch Strait.

Facing an extension of the sentence term, Ukrainian POWs detained in the Kerch Strait refused to testify in Lefortovo court. Sailors were distributed into six groups, four people in each. On January 15, 2019, Moscow's Lefortovo district court decided to keep 20 Ukrainian sailors in remand until April 24. On January 16, the court extended the detention term for another 4 sailors.

As we reported, lawyer Nikolai Polozov, who deals with the defense of Ukrainian prisoners of war, confirmed that three Ukrainian sailors wounded in the Russian Navy attack on Ukrainian ships were brought from Matrosskaya Tishina to Lefortovo prison in Moscow. He also added that it happened on Monday, January 28.

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