The Russian Foreign Ministry praises Kyiv's declared intention to provide Russian consular workers with access to Russian citizens Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov detained in Ukraine.

"If access is provided indeed, this means that our Ukrainian partners responsibly approach Russia's addresses, because this [the provision of consular access to foreign citizens] is part of each country's international legal obligations," Russian State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told Interfax.

"It's good, we have worked toward this, and we have insisted on this all these days," he said.

Russia "will be fully satisfied if the Russian citizens end up on Russian territory," he said.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry had said earlier on Tuesday that it had forwarded a note to Russia on May 25 to inform it about possible access to Yerofeyev and Alexandrov.

Two Russian citizens whom the Ukrainian Security Service calls officers of the Russian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Department were detained in the military operation zone outside the town of Schastia, the Luhansk region, on May 16. One of them was wounded in the arm and the other in the leg.

The detainees were transferred to the Defense Ministry's Main Clinical Hospital in Kyiv.

On May 19, Ukrainian investigators announced that they suspected Yerofeyev and Alexandrov of involvement in terrorist activities (a crime covered by Russian Criminal Code Article 258, Part 3).

The Russian Defense Ministry said on May 18 that Yerofeyev and Alexandrov "were not on active duty with the Russian armed forces at the moment of their detention."