The ministry reminded that the investigative department of the Main Directorate of the National Police in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol carried out a pre-trial investigation in the criminal proceedings on the facts of unlawful imprisonment of crew members of the fishing vessel YAMK-0041, by prior agreement by a group of persons, using weapons and threatening the use of violence, as well as the seizure of the said vessel by representatives of illegally created bodies in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea peninsula.
“After Ruslan Kondratyuk and Andriy Morozov were returned to the mainland of Ukraine, an appropriate investigative and procedural actions were carried out with them. Fishermen also received victim status in criminal proceedings, which are guided by the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea,” the ARC Prosecutor’s Office said.
Earlier, the occupying authorities of Crimea freed Ruslan Kondratyuk and Andriy Morozov, two Ukrainian fishermen of the YAMK-0041 vessel, who were illegally detained in September 2018.