A Spanish judge Thursday ordered the release of pro-Russian Ukrainian blogger Anatoly Shary but forbade him from leaving the country pending an extradition hearing. Shary was arrested in Tarragona, where he has resided since 2019, by Spain’s National Police Corps at the request of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU).

Judge Jose Luis Calama of Spain’s Audencia Nacional released Shary at the request of Spain’s Prosecution Ministry. While explaining his decision, Calama recognized that Shary had established roots in Tarragona due to his multi-year residence in the city. However, Shary is subject to a number of conditions, including the surrender of his passport and a requirement to show up at his local courthouse in Tarragona twice a month, pending further proceedings.

Ukrainian prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Shary on March 15, one year after the SBU first accused Shary of treason and inciting hatred online in February 2021. The SBU said in its 2021 press release that Shary “discredited the state policy of Ukraine, deliberately and purposefully disseminated manipulative, [and] distorted information about government initiatives and events in the East… to aggravate and destabilize the socio-political and socio-economic situation, inciting interethnic and interfaith conflicts.”

This move comes in the shadow of numerous accusations against Russia for war crimes and mass killings during their invasion of Ukraine, including a recent indictment of ten Russian soldiers accused of atrocities in Bucha. Ukrainian prosecutors are also conducting another treason investigation into the activities of former President Victor Yanukovych, who was deposed in 2014 during Ukraine’s Euromaidan revolution.