KIEV, August 15. /TASS/. Ukraine will continue in absentia proceedings against Russian citizens detained in Belarus and handed over to Russia, Ukrainian Deputy Prosecutor General Gyunduz Mamedov told the Ukrainskaya Pravda paper.

"With the evidence basis, we will bring them to criminal responsibility at the national level, using the mechanism of in absentia proceedings, because charges against them have already been filed," he said.

Earlier, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office requested the extradition of the 28 detained Russians from Belarus. According to Ukrainian investigators, those individuals took part in the Eastern Ukrainian conflict, fighting for the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (DPR and LPR).

Mamedov said Kiev’s extradition request had been left unanswered by Belarus.

The office of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said on Friday it regretted Minsk’s decision to return the 32 Russians to their home country, adding that Kiev was expecting "a decision that would be more judicially correct and balanced."

"Ukraine regrets the decision by the Republic of Belarus to hand over to Russia a previously detained group of individuals, employed by the Vagner private security firm. Undoubtedly, the Republic of Belarus is an independent state with its own views, but the Ukrainian side expected a decision that would be more judicially correct and balanced."

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said on Friday that "under a motion issued by Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov on August 5 in conformity with the Minsk Convention of Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Cases of January 22, 1993, thirty-two Russian nationals who were earlier detained in Belarus have crossed Russia’s state border." One more person who was among those detained stayed in Belarus as he hold both Russian and Belarusian passports.

Early on July 29, 32 Russian citizens were apprehended near Minsk, and one more was detained in southern Belarus. In his address to the nation and the parliament on August 4, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said the Russians were deliberately deployed to his country.

It was reported that Belarus submitted the list of the detainees to Ukraine. Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said some of those individuals probably had several passports, including Ukrainian ones. In this case, he said, Ukraine would treat them as its citizens.

Meanwhile, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow did not recognize the Ukrainian citizenship of some members of the group detained in Belarus. Besides, he noted that these Russian citizens had come to Belarus and were due to fly by transit to another country and their stay was neither linked to Belarus nor Belarusian affairs. Peskov pointed out that those detained were members of a private security firm.