Oksana Sokolovska, the lawyer for Yevgeny Yerofeyev, a Russian citizen convicted in Ukraine, said that the verdict of the Holosiyivsky district court of Kyiv against her client and another convicted Russian, Alexander Alexandrov, will go into effect no sooner than May 25, 2016, because the verdict has yet to be translated into Russian, and given to the convicts.

"Because a copy of the verdict from the Holosiyivsky district court of Kyiv, with respect to Yerofeyev and Alexandrov, still has not been translated into Russian, and handed to the convicts, the 30-day period for filing an appeal has not started yet. There is a view that the convicts will not get the verdict before April 25, 2016. Therefore, the verdict will not come into effect before May 25, 2016," Sokolovska wrote on her Facebook page on Thursday.

It was reported that on April 18, 2016, a panel of judges at the Holosiyivsky district court of Kyiv sentenced the two Russians to 14 years of imprisonment.

On May 16, 2015, Russian citizens Alexandrov and Yerofeyev were detained near the town of Schastia, Luhansk region of Ukraine, according to Kyiv, in an attempt to seize a strategic bridge.

On May 19, Ukrainian detectives told the Russians that they were suspected of crimes stipulated under Article 258-3 of the Ukrainian Penal Code for involvement in terrorist activities. The Kyiv Shevchenkivsky District Court ordered their arrest on May 22.