Free Oleh Sentsov!

During the ceremony, Dariusz Jablonski, director of the Polish Film Academy, urged his colleagues to show solidarity with Sentsov. All those present in the hall put up posters reading “Release Oleg Sencow!” radiosvoboda.org reports.

A similar action in support of Sentsov was taken in Kyiv at the opening of the The 15th International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Docudays UA. “Incidentally, when French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was recently visiting Kyiv, he met with some hostages and political prisoners released from Russian prisons and from certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, as well as with the families of the Ukrainians still held incarcerated by Russia and the occupational regime, with mothers of the missing. It was a very emotional and important meeting,” Iryna HERASHCHENKO, First Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada, representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group, writes in Facebook. “The honorable minister brought a book by Oleh Sentsov, and Oleh’s sister signed it at the minister’s request: ‘I hope Oleh himself will soon sign this book.’ Natalia said it is now minus 30 C in Siberia, where her brother is serving his term, Oleh has some health problems and cherishes the idea of being freed.

“Former hostages and families of prisoners requested France to increase pressure on Russia to free all the Ukrainian captives, intensify sanctions until the Donbas and Crimea are fully liberated, and not to recognize the rigged elections (of which Crimean Tatar leaders Ilmi Umerov and Ahtem Chiygoz spoke). In spite of a limited time, we managed to furnish first-hand information about tortures in captivity, raise the question of freeing our military, and speak about journalists Aseiev and Sushchenko. Oleksii Kyrychenko said that being photographed by a French journalist had saved him from being shot in the first days of captivity. A colleague of his, who did not give an interview, was executed.

“We also broached the question of those reported missing. Mothers of the missing request France, as one of the Normandy Four, to press on with this issue so that the ICRC and other international missions be allowed to take part in searching for the disappeared and doing expert examination. It was a very emotional meeting. I thank all the former hostages who go on struggling for the liberation of their comrades.”