The Ombudswoman for Human Rights appointed by Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada has said crew members of the Nord fishing vessel have refused to meet with her because their rights are not being violated.

"The chief of the ombudswoman's secretariat, Liudmyla Levshun, just had talks with one of the Nord crew members. She offered him a meeting with me to discuss issues relating to the possible violation of their rights. However, he said their rights were not violated and, therefore, no meeting is necessary," Denisova said on her Facebook on Friday.

"I want to emphasize that members of Nord's crew are Ukrainian citizens and have not been detained. They are free to travel around Ukraine and leave Ukraine. The crew members are not being detained by Ukrainian law-enforcement agencies and can exercise their rights using Ukrainian passports," Denisova said.

As earlier reported, the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service detained the Nord (home port Kerch) and its crew of ten on March 25.

Denisova earlier asked President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko to consider the possibility of exchanging the crew members of the Nord vessel detained by the State Border Service of Ukraine for the crew members of the YMK-0041 vessel detained by Russia on May 4.