India on Thursday responded to Ukraine's call for an investigation into the detention of six of its nationals in Mizoram, for which Kyiv has blamed Russia.
This comes after US citizen Matthew VanDyke was arrested on March 13 by the National Investigation Agency (NIA)—in addition to six other Ukrainian nationals—at the Delhi, Lucknow and Kolkata airports.
The seven have been accused of illegally entering India using tourist visas and working with anti-India groups, as well as allegedly entering Myanmar (via Mizoram) to contact ethnic war groups.
"There are certain areas which are restricted in India and certain protected areas. You need permission to travel there, and whether they were in possession of this particular permission or not is now being examined in court," Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a briefing on Thursday.
However, he did not offer further technical details on the case.
Jaiswal had been responding to a question about whether the accused had obtained protected area permits before travelling to Mizoram.
The seven accused have been remanded to NIA custody until March 27 as the agency continues to probe their alleged links to anti-India groups operating in the region.
The three Ukrainians arrested from Lucknow were said to be war veterans: Petro Hurba, Tara Slyviak and Ivan Sukmanovski. Three more were arrested in Delhi recently: Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim, and Kaminskyi Viktor.
Ukraine's request for an independent, impartial investigation into the six individuals detained was also accompanied by a request for consular access, which Ukraine’s ambassador Oleksandr Polishchuk discussed in a recent meeting with Sibi George, Secretary (West), MEA. The US, however, has not said much on VanDyke's detention, apart from an acknowledgement.
"Ukraine firmly rejects any insinuations regarding the possible involvement of the Ukrainian State in supporting terrorist activities," the Ukrainian Embassy in India said in a statement, instead blaming Russia for trying to "drive a wedge" between Kyiv and New Delhi.
"We also emphasise that Ukraine has no interest in any activity that could pose a threat to the security of India," the statement added.