KIEV, July 28. /TASS/. The Ukrainian president’s administration has refuted reports about the exchange of two Russian nationals who were arrested in Ukraine for Ukrainian servicemen kept prisoner in the self-proclaimed republics.

"Reports about such exchange are not true. It is a fake," spokesman for the Ukrainian presidential administration Andrei Lysenko told journalists on Tuesday.

Earlier, a number of media reported that Russian nationals Alexander Alexandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev, who had been detained by Ukrainian servicemen in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and taken to Kiev, were exchanged for Ukrainian servicemen kept prisoner in the self-proclaimed republics.

Alexandrov and Yerofeyev were detained near the settlement of Schastye near Luhansk on May 16, 2015. The Ukrainian authorities claimed the two men were allegedly Russian servicemen. Two days later, the Russian defense ministry denied this fact, saying these men had not been on military service at the moment of detention.

On May 22, 2015, Kiev’s district court places the two Russians under arrest. On June 10, Kiev’s Court of Appeals ruled to keep them under arrest.