Russia coach Sergei Elevitch took their recent defeat to Ukraine with a pinch of salt and believes it will only spur them on to greater things in next month’s European Championships.

Seeking to build on an 88-81 victory over their local rivals only days previously, Russia came unstuck in the second match to slip to a 77-74 defeat.

Russia’s Valentin Kubrakov led all scoring with 14 points while his team-mate, forward Sergei Monya added 11 points and 10 rebounds to the 21 points he collected in the first game.

It was not enough to save the Russians but Elevitch believes the result was of secondary importance.

"We had to win (this match) according to all the laws of logic," he said.

"But even the loss in this game is positive because we received some good match-practice and were able to mimic every extreme situation that could occur at the European Championships."

Russia will get the chance to make amends for that loss in Finland, where they are participating in a four-team friendly tournament involving the hosts, Germany and Estonia.

Russia arrived in Finland on Tuesday with a squad of 13 players, including Alexander Bashminov and Zahar Pashutin. Both players were suffering from injuries but have now recovered.

The squad, who have been joined in Finland by Russia’s youth team coach Yuri Selikhov, has spent the last few days training in Novogorsk and Khimki in preparation for their trip to Scandinavia.

The group will return to Moscow on August 9 and the day after they will depart for Latvia for their next training session.