Valentyn Rybin, a lawyer for the Russian citizen Alexander Alexandrov convicted in Ukraine, says he might file a pardon petition for his client on his own, on the strength of him being Alexandrov's defense lawyer.

"I do not exclude myself from the circle of entities who can file a pardon petition," Rybin told Interfax on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Oksana Sokolovska, a lawyer for Yevgeny Yerofeyev, another Russian convicted in Ukraine, had said neither Yerofeyev, Alexandrov, nor their defense teams would file pardon petitions and that this would be done by other entities entitled to file such petitions.