In this grab taken from Associated Press Television footage on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015, Yuri Grabovsky speaks during a trial hearing at the Holosiivskyi District Court in Kiev, Ukraine. (AP)
A lawyer for one of two Russian servicemen on trial in Ukraine has been found shot to death, officials said on Friday.
Yuri Grabovsky was representing Alexander Alexandrov, who was captured along with another Russian last year in rebel-held eastern Ukraine. The two men admitted they were Russian officers but Moscow said they had resigned from active duty. Russia has repeatedly denied it was supplying the separatists with equipment or recruits.
The Ukrainian National Bar Association said in a statement Friday that Grabovsky, who was declared missing earlier this month, was found dead. The group said suspects have been detained.
Hearings in the trial of the two Russians were adjourned in early March when Grabovsky did not show up in court
Anatoly Matios, chief military prosecutor, told reporters on Friday that Grabovsky's body with a gunshot wound was found in the early hours on Friday buried south of the capital Kiev after a suspect had told prosecutors about the location. Another suspect in the killing was detained later, he said.
The prosecutor would not immediately identify the motive for the killing or reveal the names of the suspects.
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