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Crimea and Sevastopol

Russian ombudsman asks Ukrainian counterpart to assist in releasing abducted servicemen

Russia’s Defense Ministry does not rule out that psychological and physical pressure will be exerted on the Russian servicemen to obtain the necessary confessions from them

© Mikhail Sokolov/TASS

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Ukraine says Russian servicemen detained in Crimea previously served in Ukraine’s army

MOSCOW, November 22. /TASS/. Russia’s human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova will send a request to her Ukrainian counterpart Valeriya Lutkovskaya asking her to assist in releasing two Russian servicemen abducted by Ukraine’s special services in Crimea.

"I have prepared a request to Lutkovskaya, the human rights ombudsman of the Ukrainian Rada, asking her to visit our servicemen and facilitate their soonest release," Moskalkova told reporters.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said late on Monday that the Ukrainian Security Service officers had illegally detained Russian contract servicemen in Crimea at about 13:00 Moscow time (10:00 GMT) on November 20 and took them to Ukraine’s Nikolayev Region.

According to the available data, the Ukrainian special services were attempting to fabricate a criminal case against Alexander Baranov and Maxim Odintsov for allegedly committed crimes against Ukraine.

Russia’s Defense Ministry does not rule out that psychological and physical pressure will be exerted on the Russian servicemen to obtain necessarythe necessary confessions from them.

This information was confirmed earlier on Tuesday by a representative of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. "Officers of the Ukrainian Security Service used substitute persons to entice warrant officer Maxim Odintsov and contract service junior sergeant Alexander Baranov into the Dzhankoi checkpoint allegedly for giving them attested documents of receiving higher education at Ukrainian higher educational institutions," the fleet’s representative said.

Shortly after Odintsov and Baranov left Russia’s territory, the servicemen were detained by representatives of the Ukrainian Security Service and brought to Ukraine’s Nikolayev Region, he added.

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