Rada speaker says there are from 29 to 38 Ukrainian prisoners in Russian jails
The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy said that there are from 29 to 38 Ukrainian citizens in Russian prisons.
"According to the different estimates, from 29 to, according to the data of the Euromaidan SOS group, 38 [...] political prisoners are [in custody in the territory of Russia]. Among them are social activists Mykola Karpiuk, Stanislav Klykh, Oleksandr Kolchenko, film-maker Oleh Sentsov. We must not forget their names. Step by step, we must make progress for them to be released," Parubiy said in the Verkhovna Rada on Wednesday.
Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners on June 14. Russian President Vladimir Putin pardoned the Ukrainian citizens Hennadiy Afanasyev and Yuriy Soloshenko, who had been convicted in Russia, out of humanitarian considerations. Both of them arrived in Kyiv in the evening. The Ukrainian side handed two Odesa journalists Olena Hlyschynska and Vitaliy Didenko over to Moscow. Hlyschynska was in custody at a detention facility in Odesa, Didenko was imprisoned in a penal colony in the Rivne region. Both of them were persecuted by the Ukrainian authorities for separatist activities in the Odesa region.
