Protesters gathered near the Russian Embassy in Kyiv on the night of May 25 to demand that Russia free director Oleg Sentsov and numerous other Ukrainian political prisoners.
Organizers called the protest “Free Sentsov Night” and projected pictures of Ukrainian political prisoners onto the embassy building. They also projected flames, which gave an impression that the embassy was on fire.
Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker, was detained in Crimea in 2014, convicted on trumped-up terrorism charges, and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. He is currently held in a prison in Russia’s far north.
On May 14, Sentsov began an indefinite hunger strike calling for Russia to free all Ukrainian political prisoners. The strike aims to attract global attention to the plight of the prisoners in the run-up to the World Cup, which will be held in Russia in June and July.
According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, more than 60 Ukrainians are imprisoned on political ground in Russian-occupied Crimea and in Russia itself.
Over a hundred people attended the Kyiv protest, including public figures like Acting Health Minister Ulana Suprun and Nata Zhyzhchenko, the lead singer of Ukrainian band Onuka.
Roman Nabozhniak, a war veteran and the founder of the Veterano Brownie bakery, also joined the protest.
“I think that, at the moment when our fellow citizens who were illegally imprisoned remain behind the bars, when Oleg Sentsov has announced a hunger strike, and many Crimean Tatars are considered to be ‘missing in action’ in their motherland, it is impossible for me to stand on the sidelines,” Nabozhniak told the Kyiv Post.
While Nobozhniak admits he is unsure how to secure the political prisoners’ release, he says he “can’t just sit and quietly watch it all.”
Not everything in the protest went as planned.
Povitroflotsky Avenue, where the Russian Embassy is located, is one of the best-lit streets in Kyiv. Because of the bright LED lamps on the street, it was not dark enough for the projections to fully appear on the embassy walls.
Artist and culturologist Mariam Nayem, who also attended the protest, found the partially failed projection symbolic.
“The fact that we couldn’t set it on fire even on such level is symbolic,” she told the Kyiv Post. “It’s sad, of course. But it’s good that we’re here.”
