MOSCOW. April 17 (Interfax) - The Russian Investigative Committee has launched criminal proceedings on the counts of abduction of Russian volunteers by Ukrainian security agencies in Donbas in 2014-2015, Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said on Monday.
Russian investigative bodies obtained some additional information about several Russian nationals abducted by members of a criminal gang in 2014-2015 with a view to groundlessly prosecuting them in the future, Petrenko said.
The criminal case has been opened under Russian Criminal Code Article 126 (kidnapping), she added.
"In particular, in December 2014, employees of Ukrainian special services abducted a 36-year-old Russian citizen at a checkpoint located near Chervony Partyzan, the Donetsk region, Ukraine. The man had not taken any part in the conflict in southeastern Ukraine. He had come to the Donetsk region as a volunteer to assist in the rehabilitation of industry in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR)," Petrenko said.
The Russian national was unlawfully detained in the towns of Novohradivka, Volnovakha and Mariupol, then he was unlawfully convicted for founding a terrorist organization, and it took two years to eventually get him out of jail, she said.
"Moreover, in April 2015 some armed individuals abducted volunteers from a Russian foundation for assistance to refugees, compatriots and Russian-speaking people called 'No One Left Behind' near the town of Olenivka in the Donetsk region, among them several Russian nationals who were then carrying a humanitarian cargo from Luhansk," Petrenko said.
Ukrainian Security Service officers accused the abductees of committing a similar crime.
"Some time later, they were exchanged for Ukrainian servicemen who had been captured by representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics," Petrenko said.