Sailor from Yana Kapu captured by Russians again

ROMAN PETRENKO - THURSDAY, 5 MAY 2022, 10:25 AM

Yevhenii Semydotskyi from Svatovo has once again been captured by the Russians, the first time being in November 2018.

Source: Luhansk Regional Military Administration

Details: Semidotskyi worked in Svatovo, in the Luhansk region, as part of the fire and rescue unit of the local branch of the State Emergency Service. He stayed in the village until the last moment to help people.

On 5 May, it became known that Semidotskyi had been detained and imprisoned by the Russians back in March.

Semidotskyi was one of the Ukrainian crew members of the tugboat Yany Kapu, seized near the Kerch Strait by Russian security forces in November 2018.

Background: On 25 November 2018, the Russian military shelled and seized the Ukrainian boats Berdiansk and Nikopol and the tug Yany Kapu with their crews in the Kerch Strait, while they were en route from Odesa to Mariupol.

Three Ukrainian sailors were injured.

The 24 captured Ukrainians were charged under Part 3 of Article 322 of the Russian Criminal Code (illegal border crossing). They spent 10 months in a Russian pre-trial detention centre.

On 7 September 2019, the sailors were released as part of a prisoner exchange and returned to Ukraine.