For three years, a banner calling on Russia to free Roman Sushchenko covered the façade of the headquarters of Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform in Kyiv.
Sushchenko, its journalist, had been imprisoned by Russia on politically motivated charges since 2016, and the banner served as a constant reminder that he was still behind bars.
But today, Sept. 11, Sushchenko has taken that banner down himself.
The journalist was one of 35 Ukrainian political prisoners that Russia released on Sept. 7 in return for 35 Russian and pro-Russian prisoners held in Ukraine. Speaking a few days later on Sept. 11, Sushchenko thanked three presidents for his release: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, former President Petro Poroshenko, and French President Emmanuel Macron.
After receiving medical treatment, Sushchenko plans to return to journalism. He also wants to advocate for the release of the remaining Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia. Estimates vary, but there may be over a hundred of them.
“We have an idea to establish an organization that will support the families of Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russia and on the occupied territories of the Donbas,” he said.
“We need to promote this topic abroad. The most important thing is that world leaders and Ukraine’s allies are involved in putting an end to the arrests of political prisoners and their usage as political weapons.”
In Sushchenko’s case, international publicity helped a lot, said independent Russian lawyer Mark Feygin, who defended the journalist in court.
Ukrinform journalist and political prisoner Roman Sushchenko, freed in a prisoner swap with Russia, speaks at his first press conference in Kyiv on Sep. 11, 2019. (Photo by Volodymyr Petrov)
Sushchenko also plans to hold a charity auction of his paintings for the benefit of political prisoners’ families.
He began drawing in a Moscow jail using a ballpoint pen, pencil, and improvised materials such as tea, onion skin, beetroot juice, and ketchup.
While he was in custody, exhibitions of his artwork opened in Kyiv, Warsaw, Paris, Brussels, and New York.
Ukrinform’s long-time correspondent in France, Sushchenko was arrested in Moscow in late September 2016 on espionage charges. Two years later, in a closed-door trial, a Russian court sentenced him to 12 years in prison for collecting secret information about the Russian national guard and army.
“I naively believed that my humble personality would not be of interest to the Russian special services. I thought that journalists working in Ukraine were more relevant for them while I had worked in Paris for six years,” Sushchenko said.
Sushchenko said he went to Moscow to visit relatives. But he also met with an acquaintance, a Russian national guard operative, three times. That man invited Sushchenko to Moscow, which Sushchneko and his defense said was a trap. Their conversations about the war in the Donbas were recorded and used as evidence that Sushchenko was a spy. However, Feygin said the content of their conversations was neither unusual nor secret.
“We will appeal against Sushchenko’s conviction. We will try Russian jurisdiction, although there are no prospects, given that Russia has no (real) judiciary. Perhaps some international courts will take our complaints into consideration,” Feygin said.
