17:52 28.08.2017

Ukrainian embassy in Belarus seeks whereabouts of Ukrainian officer's son

2 min read
Ukrainian embassy in Belarus seeks whereabouts of Ukrainian officer's son

The Embassy of Ukraine in Belarus has sent a note to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry inquiring about the whereabouts of 19-year-old Pavlo Hryb, the son of a Ukrainian officer, who went missing in Gomel on August 24, First Secretary of the Ukrainian embassy Mariya Hutsalo has said.

"The consul of Ukraine's embassy in Belarus is monitoring this issue closely. On August 28 Ukraine's embassy sent the Belarusian Foreign Ministry a note asking for clarification about the whereabouts of Pavlo Hryb," she said on Monday in an interview with the Kyiv-based 112.ukraine TV channel.

Earlier in the day former Ukrainian State Border Control Service employee Ihor Hryb said Russian secret services had kidnapped his son during his visit to Belarus.

"My 19-year-old son Pavlo on August 24, 2017 travelled to Gomel to meet with a girl with whom he became acquainted through social media, at first through the VKontakte social platform, and then via Skype. Pavlo was supposed to return the same day, but did not, and I travelled to Gomel to look for him," Hryb said on his Facebook page on Monday.

Ihor Hryb said he learned in Belarus that his son was wanted for violating Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code (terrorism) and that this charge was filed by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) in Sochi, Krasnodar Krai.

"At the Gomel border security group (the same as our border security squad) [I] asked the duty officer to help find my son, because according to instructions border troops detain wanted persons as soon as they are identified and convoy them to the agency that issued the wanted notice. They even asked me for personal information about Pavlo and promised to take care of the situation. They told me about 90 minutes later that they had no information about my son," Hryb said.

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