On Saturday, February 15, Russian border guards detained in the western part of the Sea of ​​Azov a small ship with four Ukrainian citizens on board without identification documents. This was reported by the press service of the border control of the FSB of Russia in the Republic of Crimea. It is noted that the ship's captain did not comply with the legal requirement to stop and attempted to escape.

“During the inspection of the craft, more than 290 specimens of flounder-kalkan, as well as an illegal fishing gear - fixed net were revealed. At the same time, the ship’s registration documents, including the right to harvest (catch) aquatic biological resources, were absent from the detainees, ”the statement said.

The FSB press service added that the detained ship, along with Ukrainian citizens, was delivered to the port of Kerch for the investigation.

Later, the FSB border control in the Crimea published a video of the interrogation of the ship's captain.

The detainee said that he is the owner of the vessel, although according to the documents the owner is his “acquaintance”. According to the captain, he and three other people went to sea from the village of Rainovka, Primorsky district, Zaporizhia region. The man negatively answered the question about the availability of documents and permission to catch biological resources.

He recognized the fact of illegal fishing by bottom nets in the Sea of ​​Azov for flounder trap.

A citizen of Ukraine said that he had not previously been held administratively or criminally liable in Russia and said that he had not been subjected to psychological and forceful influence from the officers of the border department of the FSB of Russia in the Republic of Crimea and had no complaints.

  • Video of interrogation of the captain of a detained ship

The Commissioner for Human Rights in Crimea Larisa Opanasyuk told TASS that four Ukrainian citizens aboard the Ukrainian ship were detained for 48 hours.

Article 256 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Illegal extraction (catch) of aquatic biological resources”) in the event that a crime is committed by a group of persons, involves a fine in the amount of 500 thousand to one million rubles or imprisonment for a term of two to five years .

According to the first vice-speaker of the Crimean parliament Yefim Fix, the detained citizens of Ukraine should be punished for their illegal actions.

“They must respond according to the laws of the Russian Federation as violators of the state border. These are real poachers and criminals, ”RIA Novosti quoted the parliamentarian as saying.

He emphasized that all such facts of illegal extraction of water resources will be suppressed in the future.

Meanwhile, the so-called prosecutor’s office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, which is part of the prosecutor general’s office of Ukraine, has opened criminal proceedings on the fact that Russian border guards detained a Ukrainian ship in the Sea of ​​Azov.

“Today, on February 15, 2020, under the procedural leadership of the autonomy prosecutor’s office, the main department of the National Police in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, a criminal case was opened under Articles 146 (“ Illegal deprivation of liberty or kidnapping. ”- RT ) and 278 (“ Hijacking or seizure of a railway rolling composition, air, sea or river vessel ”) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on the fact of illegal seizure by the FSB border guards of the Russian vessel of four people on board,” the agency said in a Telegram channel.

Note that the Russian border guards are not the first time detaining Ukrainian citizens engaged in poaching. However, in Kiev, the facts of illegal fishing by their compatriots do not want to admit.

So, in August 2019, the Security Service of Ukraine accused the FSB of Russia "of terrorizing Ukrainian citizens in the waters of the Sea of ​​Azov." Allegedly, the Russian special services illegally detained Ukrainians, and then through threats and blackmail they obtained false testimonies about poaching fish. According to the SBU, such activities by the Russian side "violate international law and are systemic in nature."

“It is accompanied by information campaigns in the Russian mass media, which should undermine the image of Ukraine in the eyes of the international community, presenting it as a state that harms the ecological fauna of the Sea of ​​Azov, develops and updates biological resources, contributes to its pollution, etc.,” the report said.