You're reading: Ukrainian prosecution brings new charges against two Russians captured in Luhansk region

On Aug. 26 Russian citizens Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov, who were earlier captured by Ukrainian security forces in the Luhansk region, have been charged with new counts under the Ukrainian Criminal Code, Yerofeyev's defense lawyer Oksana Sokolovska said.

“The main military prosecutor’s office has presented a number of new suspicions against Alexandrov and Yerofeyev, including of waging aggressive war, illegal border crossing, illegal transfer of weapons and ammunition, illegal carrying of weapons, and illegal entry into occupied territories, that is, a host of additional counts,” Sokolovska told Interfax on Aug.26.

The prosecution authorities “left the act of terrorism count in place and added the count of complicity in an act of terrorism,” she said.

Sokolovska insisted that all charges brought against the two were unsubstantiated.

“I so far don’t see substantiated suspicions,” Sokolovska said.

Kyiv claims that Alexandrov and Yerofeyev were active servicemen of the Russian armed forces when they were captured during an attempt to take control of a bridge within the military operation area near the town of Shchastya, in the Luhansk region, on May 16. One Ukrainian soldier was killed and three others injured in an exchange of fire. One of the Russian captives was injured in the arm and the other in the leg. Alexandrov and Yerofeyev were transferred to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry main clinical hospital in Kyiv and underwent planned surgeries on May 29.

Kyiv’s Shevchenkivsky District Court ordered on May 22 that the two be taken into custody pending trial.

Yuriy Tandyt, an advisor to the Ukrainian Security Service chief, said on July 28 that Ukraine would try Alexandrov and Yerofeyev, and the proceedings should begin in September 2015.

At the end of July, the captives were transferred from the hospital to a Kyiv detention facility.

The Russian Defense Ministry contends that, at the moment of their captivity, Yerofeyev and Alexandrov had not been active military servicemen.