A Russian court arrested in absentia four Ukrainian nationals, including MP Volodymyr Parasiuk for attacking Russian diplomatic missions in 2014-2016, Russia's news agency TASS said Wednesday, 11 October. Ukrainian citizens Volodymyr Romantsev, Oleksiy Bakay and Volodymyr Nazarenko were actively involved in the willful damage of the property of the Russian diplomatic mission and took part in desecration of Russia's national flag, a spokesperson for Russian Investigative Committee, Svetlana Petrenko, said as quoted by TASS.
"These individuals have been put on the international wanted list and, at the request of investigators, the court has imposed in absentia a pre-trial restraint on them in the form of custody," she said.
The evidence collected by investigators, including footage from open sources, and the results of forensic examinations, clearly indicated that the four defendants have attacked an institution that enjoys international protection committed with a view to complicating international relations
Nazarenko and Parasiuk are also charged with abuse of Russia's national flag.
Petrenko noted that the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies "have been conducting their own investigations over the attacks on the Russian diplomatic missions for a long time, during which no one has been charged with a criminal offense so far."
"Ukraine actually refused to comply with the requests for legal assistance from Russian investigators, but the RF Investigative Committee will spare no efforts to identify and bring to justice all the individuals who took part in the above-mentioned attacks on the Russian diplomatic missions abroad," the spokeswoman stressed.