Kyiv's Podilsky District Court has extended until January 6, 2018 a measure of restraint in the form of detention for former Ukrainian Armed Forces serviceman Alexander Baranov, who is charged with high treason for crossing over to serve in the Russian army.

The defendant's lawyer, Valentyn Rybin, told Interfax-Ukraine that the next court hearing on this case would be held at 16.00 on November 29.

At a meeting on Thursday, November 2, the court has already begun to consider this case in essence. Representatives of the prosecutor's office read out the indictment, and then the court determined the procedure for investigating the evidence and further consideration of the case.

Rybin said that a meeting of Kyiv's Darnytsky District Court on the case of Maxim Odintsov, who was detained together with Baranov, would be held on November 13. Earlier, the court extended his term of detention until November 24. In this process, prosecutors have already submitted its evidence for consideration by the court.

As reported, two servicemen, Alexander Baranov and Maxim Odintsov, had crossed over to serve in the Russian army in 2014. On November 20, 2016, they were detained by officers of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) near the Chonhar crossing point at the border with Crimea.

On November 22, 2016, Mykolaiv's Central District Court ordered that the two servicemen accused of desertion (Ukrainian Criminal Code Article 408, Part 1) be taken into custody as a pretrial restrictive measure. The two were also charged with high treason (Article 111, Part 1) the same day.