Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker and writer whom Russia subjected to a sham trial and imprisoned in Siberia, started a hunger strike on May 14, demanding the release of all Ukrainian political prisoners held by the Kremlin, Sentsov’s cousin has told Ukraine’s Hromadske TV.
Sentsov, 41, was arrested in Crimea on May 11, 2014 by the Russian occupation authorities, who started an immediate crackdown on pro-Ukrainian activists in the wake of Russia’s invasion and occupation of the peninsula in late February 2014.
Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years in prison on charges of plotting a terrorist attack – charges he denies. He is now being kept in solitary confinement in a prison in Labytnangi, in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous region in Russia’s far north.
In a letter posted on Hromadske TV’s website, Sentsov wrote that he had started an indefinite hunger strike, which he said he would end only after “the release of all Ukrainian political prisoners who are now kept on the territory of Russian Federation.”
“Together until the end! Glory to Ukraine,” Sentsov wrote in his letter.
Sentsov’s cousin Nataliya Kaplan said he had been preparing himself for the hunger strike for two months. She added that she feared for his well being.
“This step makes me be nervous, but I know Oleg, and I know he will not back down,” she told Hromadske TV.
“I can only hope that he will survive and achieve his goal.”
According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, more than 60 Ukrainian political prisoners are being held in Russian-occupied Crimea and in Russia itself.
