Russia has accused Ukraine of abducting two of its servicemen from the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.
The Russian defence ministry said the men were “illegally detained” on Sunday. Ukraine says the pair are deserters, who defected to Russia from the Ukrainian military after Crimea was annexed by Russian forces in 2014.
Russia called their arrest “another act of gross provocation” and called for their “immediate return”. The men have been named as Ensign Maxim Evgenyevich Odintsov and Junior Sergeant Alexander Vyacheslavovich Baranov.
Russia said they were taken from Crimea to Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region, north-west of the peninsula. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said the detainees were apprehended after crossing into Ukrainian-controlled territory. “We did not abduct anyone – we arrested two deserters who had crossed the border at the Chongar checkpoint,” said SBU spokeswoman Elena Gitlyanskaya, quoted by Ukraine’s Unian news agency. She said the pair were now under criminal investigation.
In a statement, the Russian defence ministry accused Ukraine’s security agencies of “fabricating” criminal charges against the two soldiers “for crimes allegedly committed against Ukraine”. It warned that “psychological and physical pressure” could be exerted on them to produce confessions.