Court arrests Russians captured in eastern Ukraine until July 19
KYIV. May 22 (Interfax) - The Kyiv Shevchenko District Court on Friday ordered to put Russian citizens Alexander Aleksandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev, who were detained in the Shchastya area on May 16, in custody for two months.
The Russian consul in Ukraine attended the court hearing, Oleg Grishin, press officer for the Russian embassy in Ukraine, said.
"On May 22, the Kyiv Shevchenko District Court granted the Ukrainian Security Service's request to put Russian citizens and servicemen with the Main Investigative Department of the General Staff of the Russian Federation captain Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Sergeant Alexander Aleksandrov under arrest until July 19," Ukrainian Security Service adviser Markian Lubkivsky said on Facebook.
Lubkivsky said the place of their arrest will be determined later by the Main Investigative Department of the Ukrainian Security Service because they need to complete their treatment.
Lubkivsky said the court hearing was open to the press. "No one's access was restricted," Lubkivsky said.
The court decision was read by Justice Valeria Malinovskaya. According to the verdict, the court made a decision to put the Russians in custody due to the evidence contained in the case materials because the suspects may "hide from the investigation, in particularly to the territory of Russia or the occupied territories in Donbas, promote the destruction of evidence and proof of the crimes they are suspected of, and also inform the other people implicated in the case about the course of the investigation."
The two Russians, who the Ukrainian Security Service believes are "officers from the Main Investigation Department of the Russian Defense Ministry," were detained in the military operation zone near Shchastya, Luhansk region. One of the detainees was wounded in the hand and the other was wounded in the leg.
On May 19, Ukrainian investigators notified Yerofeyev and Alexandrov that they were suspected of involvement in terrorist activities on behalf of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on May 18 that the two Russians "had not been active servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces as of the moment of their detention."
