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Ukraine’s foreign ministry sends note to Russia over detention of Ukrainian lawmaker

We sent a note demanding immediate release of our lawmaker, Alexei Goncharenko said

KIEV, March 1. /TASS/. Ukraine’s foreign ministry has sent a note to the Russia side over the detention in Moscow of Ukrainian lawmaker Alexei Goncharenko, Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Yevgeny Perebiinis told the 112 Ukraina television channel on Sunday.

"Today we sent a note to the Russian foreign ministry demanding immediate release of our lawmaker," he said. He said Goncharenko had been detained for disobeying police during a march of mourning in memory of Russian politician Boris Nemtsov.

A spokesman for the Russian Investigations Committee told TASS Goncharenko was being interrogated on the case of crimes against a Russian citizen during the Odessa massacre in May 2014. "A Russian Investigations Committee investigator who is probing into the criminal case launched on charges of attempted murder and torturing a Russian citizen during the tragic developments in Odessa on May 2, 2014 has arrived at the police station to interrogate Goncharenko," the spokesman said.

In the meantime, the Antimaidan movement said in a statement that Goncharnko had taken part in the massacre of the movement’s activists in Odessa on May 2, 2014, when 48 people died in fire at Odessa’s House of Trade Unions. A criminal case was opened in Russia over an attempt on the life of a Russia citizen who happened to be at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa.