Lawyer calls info on Russian citizen Yerofeyev's swap for Ukrainian soldiers 'fake'
MOSCOW. July 28 (Interfax) - Oksana Sokolovskaya, a lawyer for Russian citizen Yevgeny Yerofeyev, who has been detained in Ukraine, has denied reports that her client was exchanged for Ukrainian servicemen.
"This information is untrue. My client Yevgeny Yerofeyev is still at a Ukrainian hospital," Sokolovskaya told Interfax.
Media reports claiming such a swap "are a fake", she said.
Sokolovskaya believes that one of the sources of this incorrect information is a lawyer representing the second Russian citizen detained in Ukraine, Alexander Alexandrov.
"Alexandrov's lawyer circulated this information in order to establish contact with the Russian's relatives," Sokolovskaya said.
Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) earlier denied reports that these Russian men had been swapped.
"This information is untrue. Both of them are in Kyiv. The investigation continues," SBU spokesperson Elena Hytlyanska told the 112-Ukraine television station on Tuesday morning, when commenting on the media reports.
Alexandrov and Yerofeyev were held near the town of Shchastya, Luhansk region, in the Donbas conflict area on May 16. One of them was injured in the arm, the other in the leg.
The Russian Defense Ministry said later that Alexandrov and Yerofeyev are Russian citizens, but they were not active members of the Russian Armed Forces at the time of their arrest.
A Kyiv court remanded the Russians into custody.
