The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine has demanded that Russia release the crews of the Ukrainian gunboats Berdyansk and Nikopol and the Yani Kapu tugboat which were fired on and captured by the Russian FSB Border Service in the Black Sea on 25 November.
The protest note was sent to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
"On 27 November 2018, the Russian Foreign Ministry was handed yet another note of protest by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry over Russia's continued unlawful actions with regard to Ukrainian naval servicemen… who on 25 November 2018 were taken prisoners of war as a result of yet another act of armed aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine in the territorial waters and exclusive economic zone of our state in the Black Sea. Russia was served an updated resolute demand to immediately release the captured Ukrainian citizens and ensure their safe return home," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in its statement.
It also demanded that Russia ensure the Ukrainians' rights under the 12 August 1949 Geneva Convention on the treatment of POWS, and allow the Red Cross to visit them.
Russia-controlled courts in Crimea arrested all the 24 Ukrainian servicemen, including three wounded ones, for two months on suspicion of illegal border crossing.