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EU monitoring investigation into lawyer Grabovsky’s murder in Ukraine

The body of a lawyer defending the Russian citizen Alexander Aleksandrov detained in Ukraine was found with gunshot wounds in the Cherkasy region of central Ukraine on March 25
Alexander Aleksandrov and Yuri Grabovsky Sergei Reznik/TASS, file
Alexander Aleksandrov and Yuri Grabovsky
© Sergei Reznik/TASS, file

BRUSSELS, March 30. /TASS/. The European Union is watching closely the investigation into the killing of Yuri Grabovsky, the lawyer of Russian citizen Alexander Aleksandrov detained in Ukraine, a representative of the EU External Action Service told TASS.

"The EU is monitoring the case into the death of Yuri Grabovsky. The investigation is continuing now," he said.

Brussels hopes that the investigation in Ukraine will be carried out in line with high international standards, the official stressed.

Grabovsky’s body was found with gunshot wounds in the Cherkasy region of central Ukraine on March 25. Law enforcers have detained two suspects in the crime. Investigators say the murder could have been a "specially planned operation."

The lawyer mysteriously disappeared in early March. He was in Odessa, southern Ukraine, on March 5 and returned to his Kiev office the following day, and no one saw him later. His personal belongings were found in hotel Arcadia in Odessa while a notice on the lawyer’s behalf was posted on his page in a social network saying he had left the country for security reasons.

Russian citizens Alexander Aleksandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev were captured by Ukraine’s forces on May 16, 2015, in the Lugansk region, in eastern Ukraine. They are accused of illegal border crossing, illegal possession of arms and involvement in terrorist activity. Kiev claims the detainees are Russian servicemen. However, the Russian Defense Ministry said the Russians "were not active servicemen of Russia’s Armed Forces at the moment of their detention."