"They hope to return home," - Chechen court rules for Ukrainians to remain in custody. PHOTOS

The Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic of Russia has not canceled arrest of Ukrainians Mykola Karpiuk and Stanislav Klylh and rejected the appeal on June 14. Earlier, the same court has prolonged their arrest until Aug. 20.

Ukrainian Consul in Rostov-on-Don Oleksandr Kovtun, who was present at the trial, told Censor.NET's correspondent in the Rostov region.

As of now, Karpiuk and Klykh remain in Grozny pretrial detention facility as detainees, not convicts - their sentence has not yet taken effect.

Stanislav Klykh's mother Tamara was allowed seeing her son. The consul himself has visited both political prisoners in the pretrial detention. Kovtun says the Ukrainians hope to be swapped soon.

^{Mykola Karpiuk, The Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic of Russia, June 14, 2016.}

"They have been inspired by the situation with Nadiia (Savchenko -ed.), Hennadii (Afanasiev - ed), and Soloshenko (Yurii - ed.), they hope that Ukraine makes efforts and they return home, they hope to be home in some time," Kovtun said.

As reported, the Supreme Court of the Chechen Republic of Russia has found Stanislav Klykh and Mykola Karpiuk guilty of murder of Russian soldiers during the second Chechen war. Karpiuk and Klyh have been sentenced to 22.5 and 20 years in prison respectively. According to their lawyers, neither of the Ukrainians had been in Chechnya during the period in question, so they appealed the sentence. Human rights Memorial organization has recognized Karpiuk and Klylh political prisoners.