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Ukrainian Foreign Ministry confirms detention of ex-commander of Aidar Battalion in Greece

The man is suspected of being involved in a shelling attack on civilians, which killed Russian journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin in June 2014

Sergei Melnichuk Maxim Nikitin/TASS

Sergei Melnichuk

© Maxim Nikitin/TASS

KIEV, March 2. /TASS/. Ex-commander of Ukraine’s nationalist Aidar Battalion Sergei Melnichuk has been detained in Greece, Director of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s Consular Department Sergei Pogoreltsev confirmed.

"As soon as we learned that Greek law enforcers detained Sergei Melnichuk on March 1, the Ukrainian consul in Thessaloniki was on his way there," he said, as cited by the Ukrinform news agency.

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Farewell ceremony for Russian VGTRK journalists killed in Ukraine to be held on June 20

Melnichuk himself wrote on Facebook earlier on Monday that he had been apprehended on the Bulgarian-Greek border at Russia’s request.

According to the Russian Investigative Committee, Melnichuk is suspected of being involved in a shelling attack on civilians, which killed Russian journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin in June 2014.

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