The Ukrainian Security Service expects that the trial of serviceman of the Russian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov, who were detained earlier during an armed clash with Ukrainian military in Luhansk Oblast, will begin in September 2015, says Yuriy Tandyt, an adviser to the Security Service chief.
The Russians are being held “in appropriate conditions,” he said.
As reported, Alexandrov and Yerofeyev, members of Russian special forces, were captured near the village of Schastia in an attempt to seize a strategic bridge on May 16. One Ukrainian serviceman was killed and three others injured in the clash. The Russians were also injured, one in the arm and the other in the leg. Alexandrov and Yerofeyev were transferred to the Defense Ministry’s main clinical hospital in Kyiv and underwent planned surgeries on May 29.
Ukrainian investigators officially notified Alexandrov and Yerofeyev on May 19 that they were suspected of having committed crimes covered by Ukrainian Criminal Code Article 258-3, for their involvement in terrorist activities of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR). Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky District Court ruled on May 22 that the two be held in detention pending trial.
The Russian Defense Ministry has said on several occasions that Alexandrov and Yerofeyev had not been on military duty at the moment of their detention in Ukraine.
Lawyer Oksana Sokolovskaya told Interfax-Ukraine that the investigation into Yerofeyev’s activities had been extended until Sept. 17.
