Ukraine tracked more than 940 ships that entered Russian Crimea. Speaker of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Oleg Slobodyan stated this on Radio Liberty, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We are now in sight of more than 940 ships, mostly foreign, that entered the ports of occupied Crimea,” the official said.
“Those shipowners who are concerned about their reputation are still in no hurry to accept any invitations and contracts from the occupation authorities and go to the occupied peninsula,” he added.
"We are tracking these ships, and if after that (entry into Crimea) they fall into our exclusive economic zone, or, moreover, dare to enter Ukrainian ports, we take appropriate measures to limit their further progress and transfer this issue into the legal field. We already have 15 vessels against which measures have been taken - either arrest or other restrictions. These are all those ships that violated the legislation of Ukraine regarding entry into occupied Crimea.
This is, for example, the well-known “Nord”, which was arrested and is now put up for sale by a court decision. This is, for example, the ship “Mechanik Pogodin” and other ships where either the cargo was arrested or the ships themselves were arrested,” Slobodyan said.
At the same time, he actually admitted that there is no “legal framework” in this matter.
“The mechanism for legal response to court visits has not yet been fully developed, but in the process of working with such problematic courts, this mechanism will be improved, there is an understanding between the branches of the law enforcement system on how to act. The mechanism of legal response itself has not yet been fully spelled out, but even based on the court decisions that already exist, we can say with confidence that fewer and fewer loopholes remain for violators of Ukrainian legislation in this matter,” Slobodyan said.