The Russian Foreign Ministry has denied reports that it did not officially request permission for a Russian consul to visit Russian citizens Alexander Alexandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev earlier detained in Ukraine.
“We hope that the Ukrainian side will stop manipulating public
opinion and will allow a [Russian] consul to visit the detained Russian
citizens in the near future. Publishing diplomatic correspondence is a
last-choice measure, but it helps assess the authenticity of recent
publications,” the Russian ministry said on its Facebook account.
“Regrettably, because of remarks made by the SBU [Ukrainian Security
Service] director’s advisor Markiyan Lubkivsky, a number of media
outlets, including those in Russia, started to report that the Russian
side had not forwarded any official requests. That is why we were forced
to publish a diplomatic document – a note submitted by the Russian
Embassy in Ukraine to the consular service department of the Ukrainian
Foreign Ministry on May 19,” it said.
The document was handed over personally to the director of the Ukrainian ministry’s consular service department.
