Russians captured two more Ukrainian civilian ships
Literally : "Yesterday, having announced a "counter-terrorist operation" in the northwestern part of the Black Sea, Russian Navy seized two more Ukrainian civilian ships."
Details : The tanker " Athena ", while located in the territorial sea of Romania, 22 miles from the Snake island, received an open channel of communication and safety of navigation command to approach the Russian warship for inspection. The shipowner of the tanker "Athena" immediately informed all the competent authorities in Ukraine.
In the meantime, while monitoring the movement of ships in the area, maritime border guards identified a sharp and illogical change of course by another ship under the Ukrainian flag. A dry cargo ship ‘‘Princess Nicole’’ was also headed for Snake Island from the Romanian waters.
Almost as soon as both civilian ships approached Russian warships, the automatic identification of ships (AIS) was turned off, and they stopped communicating.
On Sunday morning, the AIS of ships showed their location 18 miles away from the occupied Crimea.
Ad verbatim : "Thus, Russian warships, having defiantly violated the rules of international maritime law all over again, under the disguise of the self-proclaimed counter-terrorist operation, captured two ships flying the Ukrainian flag with almost 50 civilian crew members."
Background : One day before, the same group of Russian Navy captured the ship ‘‘Sapphire’’ which was on its way to Snake Island with a humanitarian mission.
