UNIAN: Zelensky, Putin discuss gas transit, return of Ukrainian boats’ property

Ukrainian activists attend their performance which they called Humanitarian aid for Russians in front of the Russian embassy in Kyiv Nov. 25, 2019. Commander of the Ukrainian Navy Ihor Voronchenko has said the naval boats seized by Russia near the Kerch Strait and later returned to Ukraine are in terrible condition, Russians have turned them into a wreck. Even the ceiling lights, sockets and toilet bowls have been plucked from there as he told Ukrainian TV Channel 4 on 20 November 2019. On the morning on 25 November 2018, Russia blocked the passage to the Kerch Strait for the Ukrainian tugboat 'Yany Kapu' and two armored naval boats 'Berdyansk' and 'Nikopol,' which were on a scheduled re-deployment from the Black Sea port of Odesa to the Azov Sea port of Mariupol. All 24 crew members on board were captured and charged with illegal border crossing. Later the Ukrainian sailors were freed and returned to Ukraine in a major prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russia on Sep. 7, 2019, and ships were returned on on Nov. 20, 2019, as well.