Court seizes 12 planes of Russian air carrier, four violating vessels – Prosecutor's office for Crimea

KYIV. Sept 27 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The court seized 12 aircraft of the Russian air carrier carrying passengers from/to the closed checkpoint Simferopol-avia, and four ships that entered the closed ports and terminals of the Crimean peninsula.

According to the website of Kyiv-based prosecutor’s office for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, within the framework of criminal proceedings initiated under Parts 1, 2, 3 of Article 332-1, Article 291, Part 1 of Article 111, Part 3 of Article 110-2, Part 2 of Article 332 and Article 334 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine established that the Russian airline illegally used 12 passenger aircraft of the brands Boeing and Embraer for illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine. It was also found that at least 37 Russian airlines carry out regular air travel to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in violation of the law. Such actions are considered by the prosecutor’s office of the autonomy as a violation of international law and as actions that undermine the sovereignty of Ukraine.

At the same time, since July 2014, Ukraine has officially ceased functioning of all ports of the occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, the peninsula’s harbors are closed for international shipping.

"Thanks to the cooperation and joint efforts of the autonomy’s prosecutor’s office, state bodies and public organizations, a significant decrease in the number of foreign ships calling at the closed ports of Crimea has been observed in recent years. In addition, foreign ships from the leading maritime states do not enter the closed harbors of the peninsula at all. They violate the legislation mainly by ships flying the flag of Russia, sometimes of Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, that is, countries with which there is no international cooperation in this direction," the message says.

The press service of the prosecutor’s office recalled that within the framework of the specified proceedings, at the request of the prosecutor’s office of the autonomy, in general, arrests were imposed on 236 aircraft and 55 ships carrying out regular passenger and other transportation to the occupied peninsula, in violation of international law and Ukrainian legislation.