KYIV. Sept 30 (Interfax) - Ukrainian citizen Ruslan Yakushev, the cook of the Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise vessel, had nothing to do with the attempted storming of the Prirazlomnaya oilrig, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.
"It is our position that the Ukrainian citizen was a crewmember unrelated to the action of the Greenpeace activists," ministry spokesman Yevhen Perebiynis told Interfax on Monday.
A representative of the Russian Embassy will be invited to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry later on Monday and the relevant note would be presented to him, the spokesman said.
He said also that the defense of Yakushev would appeal the Murmansk court's decision.
"The lawyer jointly with our consul will appeal the Murmansk court's ruling," the diplomat said.
Special-purpose units of the Russian Federal Security Service's Border Service seized the Arctic Sunrise on September 19 during an attempt to protest the Prirazlomnaya platform's drilling for oil in the Pechora Sea.
The ship was escorted to Murmansk on September 24. The Arctic Sunrise had a multinational crew of 30, including Russian citizens. All of them were placed under arrest for two months.