MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/. Moscow is investigating into the circumstances of Ukraine’s decision to detain a Russian tanker to take appropriate steps, the Russian Foreign Ministry told TASS on Thursday.

"We are studying the details of what has happened to take appropriate measures," the Russian diplomatic agency stressed. "If the Russians were taken hostage, this will be qualified as a brazen violation of the international law and consequences will ensue quickly."

As for media reports claiming that the crew of the Russian tanker detained in the Ukrainian port of Izmail are about to return home, the Russian embassy in Kiev could not confirm them in an interview with TASS.

"We can neither confirm nor deny these reports. The embassy and the consulate in Odessa are trying to figure out the circumstances of the incident and ways to resolve the situation," it stressed.

Interaction of the human rights advocates

Meanwhile Russian human rights ombudswoman Tatiana Moskalkova has asked her Ukrainian counterpart, Lyudmila Denisova, to clarify the circumstances of the detention of the Russian tanker at the port of Izmail and provide information about the Russian crew.

"On July 25, Russian human rights ombudswoman Tatiana Moskalkova had a telephone conversation with human rights ombudswoman of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada [parliament — TASS] Lyudmila Denisova. Moskalkova asked Denisova to find out the circumstances of the vessel’s detention and the composition of the crew: how many Russian nationals are aboard, whether they receive consular support and their rights are observed, whether they are provided with food and drinking water and whether some of them need medical assistance," Moskalkova’s office issued a press statement on its website on Thursday.

"Denisova, in turn, promised to clarify the situation with the SBU [Ukrainian Security Service — TASS]. The ombudswomen agreed to continue their humanitarian dialogue," the statement added.

Stance of senior Russian MPs

Chairman of the Russian State Duma (lower house) Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky characterized Ukraine's actions as "state piracy." In his vision, the Ukrainian authorities are trying to exert pressure on the investigation into the case of Ukrainian sailors being arrested for illegally crossing Russia’s state border in the Kerch Strait.

"Ukraine responded to its own provocation [in the Kerch Strait area] with an act of state piracy. [That’s] illegal pressure on the investigation," he wrote in a Twitter post.

Later he told journalists that such Kiev’s actions give away its unpreparedness to normalize "relations with Russia, in particular, in what concerns navigation in the Kerch Strait."

"It gives an impression that the new Kiev authorities’ hints at establishing cooperation with Russia have nothing to do with their real plans. The anti-Russian hysteria that was whipped up under Pyotr Poroshenko keeps rolling on," he said.

"Nevertheless, we continue to call for the normalization of Russian-Ukrainian relations. We will work with those who are ready for a constructive dialogue with Moscow. Many in the Kiev 'establishment' want to resume relations as soon as possible. And in terms of history, our peoples are destined to be good neighbors," Slutsky stressed.

Another high-ranking MP, Chairman of the Russian Federation Council (upper house) Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev also issued a comment. In his view, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky needs to clarify his position on the detention of the Russian tanker by Ukraine’s Security Service but such a provocation doesn’t bode well for relations between Moscow and Kiev. "The circumstances of the incident need to be clarified, as well as Zelensky’s position. When does Ukraine show its true face, when it rattles sabers or speaks about peace? The moment of truth has come," he wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

He supposed that the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) might be acting upon the order of the country’s president, "then Vladimir Zelensky is actually picking up a provocation initiated by his predecessor Pyotr Poroshenko who sought to achieve his campaign goals." "It is a very bad thing for Ukraine, its relations with Russia and all of those people who expected Zelensky to determine a different policy course. Another possibility is that Ukraine’s SBU is acting on its own, seeking to drag the president into a provocation," the Russian senator noted.

Kosachev added that the second possibility meant nothing good "because in this case, Zelensky is only a tool in the hands of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies formed by the previous authorities."

The Russian ship's detention

Earlier on Thursday, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) detained Russia’s Nika Spirit tanker at the port of Izmail, claiming that it was the Neyma tanker that had blocked the movement of Ukrainian ships during the Kerch Strait incident of last November. According to the SBU, Ukrainian border guards identified the Russian-flagged Nika Spirit tanker that had entered the port of Izmail under its IMO number registered with the EQUASIS international database as the Neyma, the tanker that had been used to block Ukrainian warships in the Kerch Strait. The SBU reported it was issuing a motion with a court to arrest the vessel as a physical evidence.