Kiev Grants Russian Embassy Access to Detained Russians

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has officially informed the Russian Embassy in Kiev that access to the two Russian nationals detained by Ukrainian forces would be granted, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry envoy Dmytros Kuleba said at a briefing on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Saturday, the Security Service of Ukraine disseminated information to the press that Ukraine had never received a request from Moscow to meet with the two Russians detained on May 16.

Earlier in the day, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs publicly disclosed a diplomatic note addressed to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry for a request to meet with the two Russian nationals.

“Yesterday on May 25, the Russian Embassy was informed through an official Foreign Ministry note that the request had been granted, giving the telephone numbers and names of people from the Ukrainian Security Service to whom the [Russian] consulate should turn to for permission to organize the meeting and there was no stalling on our side or attempts to hamper representatives from the Russian Embassy,” Kuleba said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry published a sсreenshot of the diplomatic note dated May 19, 2015 on its Facebook page. The note sent by the Russian Embassy in Ukraine to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's Consular Service contained Moscow's request to visit the detained citizens.