On Jan. 13 Ukrainian parliament adopted two addresses that aim to bring forward the cases of Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko and film producer Oleg Sentsov who are imprisoned in Russia.
The lawmakers appealed to Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to pass a corresponding resolution at the session scheduled for Jan. 26-30 and addressed the leaders of Germany, France, and Russia, asking them to take steps to free Ukrainian citizens illegaly detained in Russia within the shortest time possible.
“Verkhovna Rada hopes for international solidarity and support and addresses the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin as the leaders of the states which will participate in the meeting to settle the situation in Donbas in the Normandy format, calling on them to immediately take all necessary measures so that a member of parliament and parliament’s permanent delegation to PACE, Nadia Savchenko, as well as Oleh Sentsov and other Ukrainian citizens, who are held against their will and are illegally detained on the territory of the Russian Federation, are set free,” reads the document.
The lawmakers stood up to listen to the appeals voiced and authored by Yulia Tymoshenko, Batkivshchyna party leader. Savchenko’s sister Vira who was present at the parliament’s session told the Kyiv Post that she was very grateful to the parliament and the authors of the appeals.
“I appreciate very much what Verkhovna Rada did and the way they did that,” she said. “It means that they have some knighthood qualities left.”
She also said she hopes to visit her sister who has been on hunger strike for 32 days already as soon as she figures out if she is allowed to cross the border of Russia.
“She has to stop hunger strike till Jan. 26 because after 45 days it will have irreversible (effect on her health),” she said.
Savchenko is currently kept in the pre-trial detention center №6 in Moscow, according to her sister. Savchenko is accused of being involved in the murder of two Russian journalists, Ihor Korneliuk and Anton Voloshyn, who were killed near Luhansk in June of 2014. She denies the accusations. Sentsov is charged with plotting terror attacks in Crimea. He also denies accusations. On Dec. 26, 2014 Moscow court ruled to leave him under arrest till April 11.
Kyiv Post staff writer Anastasia Forina can be reached at [email protected].
