13:18 26.05.2015

Prosecutor General's Office brings action against Russian GRU officers on charges of terrorism

2 min read

The Prosecutor General's Office has announced that an action has been brought on charges of the alleged involvement of members of the Russian General Staff's main intelligence directorate, or GRU, in acts of terror in eastern Ukraine.

"An investigation has been launched to probe into the involvement of the Russian servicemen captured near the town of Schastia, in acts of terror. During investigative activity, information was obtained about alleged participation of members of the Russian General Staff's main intelligence directorate, or GRU, in terrorist activity. That fact is now being investigated," Yuriy Sevruk, who heads the criminal cases supervision department of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office, said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Servicemen of the 92nd separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Army detained two Russian nationals, Captain Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Sergeant Alexander Alexandrov, near the town of Schastia in Luhansk region on May 16. The Ukrainian side claimed the detainees were servicemen of the third special brigade of the Russian Armed Forces stationed in Togliatti.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported on May 18 that "Russian citizens Alexander Alexandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev seized by the Ukrainian Security Service in the Luhansk region were not active servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces at the moment of their detention."

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

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

On May 22, Kyiv's Shevchenkivsky court ruled that the two Russian officers should be remanded in custody until July 19, 2015, inclusively.

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