KIEV (Sputnik) – Aleksandrov and Yerofeev were each given 14-year jail terms by a Ukrainian court after being convicted of fighting on the side of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic in the country’s east. Aleksandrov’s defense attorney Valentin Rybin told RIA Novosti early on Wednesday that his defendant had filed a mercy petition with the office of the Ukrainian president.
"You watch the decision. This is the decision of the question of what is going on now, this is what was agreed upon," Valentin Rybin told RIA Novosti.
When asked to specify if this meant that Savchenko was being swapped for the two Russians, Rybin said, "Yes, that’s how it is."
This appears to be at odds with what is known to the Russian presidential office, whose press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters at Wednesday’s regular briefing that he had "no information" regarding the alleged swap plans.
The 34-year-old Ukrainian was sentenced in March by a Russian court for her part in the killing of Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine. She said she would not appeal the ruling.