The defense lawyer for Captain Yevgeny Yerofeyev, a Russian citizen who was arrested in Donbas, has appealed against Kyiv's Shevchenko District Court order to remand him in custody.
“The complaint against the Shevchenko District Court decision was filed today,” Yerofeyev’s defense attorney, Oksana Sokolovska, told Interfax on May 27.
The defense has asked the appellate court to overturn the district court decision and reject the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) request to detain Yerofeyev, she said.
The appeal hearing date will be decided within the next three days, Sokolovska said.
Yerofeyev is one of the two Russian men who were held near the town of Shchastya in the Donbas conflict area on May 16. SBU claims they are officers of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). One of them was injured in the arm, the other in the leg.
On May 19, Ukrainian investigators charged Captain Yerofeyev and Sergeant Alexander Alexandrov with crimes stipulated in Article 258 3 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code (participation in terrorist activities).
On May 18 the Russian Defense Ministry said that Alexandrov and Yerofeyev, who were captured in Luhansk region, “were not active members of the Russian Armed Forces at the time of their arrest on May 17.”
On May 22, Kyiv’s Shevchenko District Court ordered that both men be remanded in custody until July 19, inclusively.
At present, the men are being held at the Main Clinic Hospital of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry in Kyiv. They have undergone several surgeries.
On May 26 they were visited in hospital by the Russian consul. The Russian Embassy has reassured them that diplomatic visits will be regular.
