MOSCOW, February 20 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Wednesday upheld a lower court’s ruling to extend detention of four other Ukrainian sailors charged with illegal crossing of Russian borders against extension of their detention until April 24, the court’s press service told RAPSI.

Appeals filed by Andrey Eider, Vasily Soroka, Andrey Artemenko and Oleg Melnichuk therefore were dismissed.

Earlier this month, the court upheld extension of other 16 sailors’ detention for two months. Appeals against detention of another four sailors were excluded from consideration in the appeals court. They were returned to Moscow’s Lefortovsky District Court for corrective actions.

On November 25, Russian border guard officers had to engage a weapon to stop unwarranted maneuvers of three Ukrainian ships in Russia’s territorial waters in the area of Kerch Strait. The ships were seized while 24 crew members were arrested. Three sailors were wounded.

Simferopol and Kerch courts ruled the sailors be detained. On November 30, all of them were transferred to Moscow.