Protesters outside of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev on Monday are demanding the creation of an interim investigative commission to probe the Russian citizens arrested in Minsk ahead of the Belarusian presidential election, according to the Ukrainian Pryamiy TV channel's broadcast
KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th September, 2020) Protesters outside of the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev on Monday are demanding the creation of an interim investigative commission to probe the Russian citizens arrested in Minsk ahead of the Belarusian presidential election, according to the Ukrainian Pryamiy tv channel's broadcast.
In late July, 33 Russians, allegedly employees of the private military company, Wagner Group, were detained on suspicion of conspiring to cause mass riots before the August 9 election. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the detained Russians were staffers of a private security firm who had been using Belarus as a transit point and were due to go to Istanbul but had missed their flight. Kiev asked Minsk to hand over 28 members of the group detained in Minsk to prosecute them for alleged war crimes during the conflict in eastern Ukraine, but they returned to Russia.
The protesters are carrying flags of the National Corps political party, based on the notorious right-wing Azov battalion, as well as the Democratic Axe and European Solidarity parties. They are calling for an investigation and chanting "impeachment."
On August 14, the Russian prosecutor general's office said that 32 members of the group had returned home and one remained in Belarus because he was also a Belarusian national.
