Ukrainian Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko has said that Ukraine has handed papers to Russia with respect to the return of Yuriy Soloshenko and Hennadiy Afanasyev, who were unlawfully convicted in Russia, to Ukraine.

"Closed-door law negotiations are being held. I am cautiously optimistic that they [Soloshenko and Afanasyev] would soon return home. The legal part has been drawn up and sent to Russia. The response will be received after political talks. As it was with Nadia [Savchenko], the political negotiations were held until the last moment. Here we have the same situation. It is very important that politicians do not comment on the course of the talks until our guys cross the Ukrainian border, as the negotiations are very hard," Petrenko told reporters in Kyiv on Saturday.