KYIV -- Ukrainian authorities have detained a man suspected of involvement in the disappearance of the lawyer of a Russian citizen who is on trial for allegedly fighting alongside separatists in Ukraine's east.
Ukraine's Deputy Prosecutor-General Anatoliy Matios said on March 20 that the suspect, a Ukrainian citizen, had been detained in the city of Odesa.
Matios said the man had "confessed" that lawyer Yuriy Hrabovskiy's "kidnapping" had been organized by Russia's Federal Security Service.
Hrabovskiy went missing in Odesa on March 5.
His client, Aleksandr Aleksandrov, and another Russian citizen, Yevgeny Yerofeyev, were detained in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region in May 2015 and later charged with terrorism.
The two men first admitted in a video that they were on active duty with the Russian military when they were captured, but later retracted that.
Moscow contends Yerofeyev and Aleksandrov were not serving in the country's armed forces when they were detained by Ukrainian forces.