The Holosiyivsky District Court in Kyiv has extended until May 19 the custody period for Russian citizens Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Alexander Alexandrov. The men were captured in a combat zone in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk region in May 2015.

The court made the decision at the prosecutor's request at a hearing on Monday, an Interfax correspondent said.

Alexandrov's new lawyer, Valentyn Rybin, who is replacing Yuriy Hrabovsky, who has gone missing, asked the court to allow him to examine the case files until April 11, when the defendants' custody period was due to expire.

Yerofeyev's lawyer, Oksana Sokolovska, insisted on house arrest.

The court also ruled to continue the case hearings on April 5, having thus given Rybin time to examine the case files.

Yerofeyev and Alexandrov were detained near the town of Schastia, in the Luhansk region, on May 16, 2015. Kyiv claimed they were trying to seize a strategic bridge.

On May 19, 2015 Ukrainian detectives told servicemen from the Russian Armed Forces were suspected of terrorism.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that Yerofeyev and Alexandrov were not in active military service at the time of their detention.