You're reading: UNIAN: UN chief urged to raise Ukrainian prisoners in talks with Putin

UNIAN: UN chief urged to raise Ukrainian prisoners in talks with Putin

By UNIAN.

Published June 15, 2018 at 2:36 pm

People hold placards with an appeal to boycott the Russia World Cup 2018 football tournament in front of the Russian Embassy in Kiev on June 14, 2018, during a rally to demand the release Oleg Sentsov and other Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia. Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Russia, will have spent a month on hunger strike in jail demanding that Russia release his fellow Ukrainians who he says are being held as political prisoners. To draw Western attention to Moscow's role in the four-year conflict in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian artist Andriy Yermolenko made a series of graphic drawings that have become popular on Facebook.

Photo by AFP

The United States, France, Britain and 35 other countries asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on June 14 to raise the case of jailed film director Oleh Sentsov and dozens of other Ukrainian prisoners during his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week.

The UN chief will hold talks with Putin on June 20 and attend a Portugal-Morocco match during the World Cup that Russia is hosting, Expatica reports citing AFP.