Foreign Ministry reacts to Maduro's statements on detention of “mercenaries from Ukraine” in Venezuela
Kyiv • UNN
The Venezuelan authorities have no information about the Ukrainian citizenship of the detainees claimed by Maduro. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is checking the information through diplomatic channels and partner ambassadors.
The Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed Kyiv that it has no information about the citizenship of the detainees claimed by Nicolas Maduro, who declared himself president of Venezuela in October. This was announced by the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Georgiy Tykhyi during a press conference, reports a correspondent of UNN.
Details
"We saw the statement. He (Maduro - ed.) said that seven foreign mercenaries (were detained - ed.) and said that among them three mercenaries who came from Ukraine were captured... He did not say citizens of Ukraine, he said they came from Ukraine. Of course, we immediately began to check this information and find out the veracity of this information, because we understand that Maduro's source is not reliable, we need to check what he says," Tychy said.
He noted that it is also necessary to check the persons he was talking about for Ukrainian citizenship and the possible participation of some of them in hostilities in Ukraine on the Ukrainian side.
"I can inform you that our foreign diplomatic mission contacted the Venezuelan Foreign Minister on January 8, who said that he had no information about the detainees' Ukrainian citizenship. He added that they would investigate the situation and report back," Tychy said.
The spokesperson noted that Ukraine has also contacted its partner ambassadors accredited in Venezuela to try to clarify the details on the spot.
"But as of now, the Venezuelan side has not provided any factual evidence of this statement. We have not yet received any information that would confirm these words. Perhaps this is part of some kind of information on Maduro's part," Tychy said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reminded that Ukraine did not recognize Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela back in 2018 and does not recognize him now.
Addendum
Venezuelan President announces the detention of seven foreign nationals, including two Americans and five people from Ukraine and Colombia.
