One of the two suspected Russian soldiers detained recently in Ukraine has agreed to cooperate with investigators, his lawyer told Ukrainian television.
The man, Alexander Alexandrov, who has identified himself as a Russian army sergeant who was on active duty performing a military assignment in rebel-held eastern Ukraine, was not going to appeal his arrest by Kiev government forces, his lawyer Konstantin Kravchuk said, TSN television reported Wednesday.
"My client has chosen the position of cooperating with the investigation," Kravchuk was quoted as saying, adding: "And the conditions of his stay in a VIP room of a military hospital more than satisfy him."
The other soldier, Yevgeny Yerofeyev, who said he was an army captain, has refused to cooperate and will appeal his arrest, his lawyer Oksana Sokolovskaya said, RIA Novosti reported.
"All that the investigation wants to get and is trying to drag out of my client, it will not be given to them," she was quoted as saying.
Alexandrov and Yerofeyev are being treated in a Kiev hospital for wounds sustained before their capture in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine on May 16.
The men said they were on an intelligence-gathering mission in the rebel region, while Kiev accuses them of "terrorism." Moscow denies that they were active-duty servicemen, insisting that they had resigned from the Russian military.
A Russian consul in Ukraine visited the men this week and said they were "feeling relatively well."