The occupational “Supreme Court of Crimea” sentenced Ivan Tereschenko and Vasyl Dmytriuk, two Ukrainian border guards from AZOVSTAL who detained M/S NORD in 2018, to 17 years in confinement.
As reported by the CHRG, the sentence was passed by “judge” Sergey Pogrebniak. The border guards are to serve the first three years in jail, and the rest – in the maximum-security regime penal colony.
The relatives of the prisoners told the CHRG that Vasyl Dmytriuk had commanded an inspection group at M/S ONYX of Mariupol Maritime Border Guard Unit, and Ivan Tereschenko was a senior warrant officer and an electrical team chief. In 2018 they served on board a Ukrainian State Border Guard ship that detained Crimean fishing ship NORD flying the Russian flag in the Sea of Azov on March 25. Those days Ivan Tereschenko had been a motorman, and Vasyl Dmytriuk had commanded coast guard motorboat LIUBOMYR.
They both became Russian prisoners of war on May 16, 2022, when, as ordered by the commander, left AZOVSTAL.
Ivan Tereschenko is known to have been sent first to Olenivka, then to Horlivka, and then to Pre-Trial Detention Center no 2 in Simferopol, so he has been in Crimea at least since August 31, 2023.
They both were charged with violating RF CC Article 126-2 a), v), g), zh) (abduction of human person), 211-3 (stealing of motor vessel) for the 2018 events in the Sea of Azov.
On March 25, 2018, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine is known to have detained a fishing ship flying the Russian flag in the Sea of Azov water area. The Prosecutor’s Office of Autonomous Republic of Crimea initiated criminal proceedings due to M/S NORD departing from the occupied port of Kerch closed by the Ukrainian authorities, and a Ukrainian court arrested the ship on March 30, 2018.
The NORD crew returned to Crimea on October 30, 2018. The occupiers stated that the seamen were changed for crews of Ukrainian ships YaMK-0041 and YaOD 21-05 detained in Crimea.
