KYIV. July 31 (Interfax) - The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has handed over to Ukrainian authorities a list of the names of the Russian citizens from a private military company who were detained near Minsk, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said during an online briefing on Friday.
"We've received a list with the names of the citizens detained in Belarus, and the Foreign Ministry of Belarus has asked us to forward this document to Ukraine's relevant agencies in order to check whether these people have committed crimes in our state or have been involved in the hostilities," Kuleba said.
This is not only about the number of Ukrainians among them and who they are, he said.
"This is a broader issue. Indeed, it's also highly important to establish which of the people on this list have been involved in hostilities on the side of the occupying forces, illegal armed formations, and, as a matter of fact, whether they have been involved in these or any other crimes," Kuleba said.
Ukraine's relevant agencies are already actively working on it, he said.
"I, for my part, would like to stress that Ukraine has always supported Belarus, has always been a reliable neighbor to Belarus, and we support independence, sovereignty, and stability in this country, which is our friend," Kuleba said.
When asked how many Ukrainians are among those detained, Kuleba said that there are definitely not seven of them.
"Just yesterday, we received the full list of these citizens who were detained and immediately forwarded it to the relevant Ukrainian agencies for analysis... As regards these Ukrainian citizens, I can say for certain that there aren't seven of them. But we need to check the whole list first," Kuleba said.
Belarusian law enforcement agencies detained 32 fighters from the Wagner foreign private military company outside Minsk early on July 29. Another person was detained in the south of Belarus.