KYIV. March 3 (Interfax) - A court in Greece has ruled to release Serhiy Melnychuk, former commander of the Aidar volunteer battalion in Ukraine and former deputy of the 8th Verkhovna Rada, who was detained on March 1, Ukrainian Deputy Interior Minister Anton Herashchenko said.
"An hour ago, a Greek court freed Serhiy Melnychuk from detention, and he may freely leave the territory of the European Union," Herashchenko said on Facebook on Tuesday.
Melnychuk himself later posted a video on Facebook to say that he was free and described his detention as "a provocation attempt by Russia."
Interpol detained Melnychuk at the Greek border at Russia's request on March 1.
He asked the Ukrainian embassy to provide him with a defense attorney and said he was being held at the police station along with his pregnant wife and nine-month-old son.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko said Melnychuk was detained as his name was entered in the Interpol database at Russia's request at a bilateral level with Greece rather than via Interpol's centralized system, and this is why he could not have been warned about this beforehand.
On March 2, Melnychuk was transferred to the police department of the city of Serres. The police department chief assured the Ukrainian consul that the detainee's rights were not violated, he was in good health and was provided with everything necessary.
The Ukrainian interior minister said in a statement on March 2 that Interpol's General Secretariat decided to review Russia's request for declaring Melnychuk wanted.
Melnychuk is a figure in a criminal case opened by the Russian Investigative Committee into the mortar fire deaths of VGTRK journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, who came under fire by the Ukrainian armed forces in Donbas on June 14, 2014.
The Investigative Committee found that, as commander of the Aidar battalion, Melnychuk ordered mortar fire be opened on a civilian area near the community of Stukalova Balka and that he was immediately involved in the process.
In 2014, Moscow's Basmanny District Court ordered an arrest warrant be issued for Melnychuk and that he be declared wanted.