The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova has said that the Russian side, in response to her requests, provides irrelevant information about the health of Ukrainian political prisoners in the Russian Federation.
“Mikhail Fedotov [Head of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation] has responded to my appeal on the state of health of Volodymyr Balukh, Asan Chapukh, Bekir Degermendzhi, and Arsen Dzhaparov. The president’s advisor of the Russian Federation wrote that Ukrainian Volodymyr Balukh was on hunger strike for a month only. No more than 200 days, as everyone counted, but only 30. And it seems that the political prisoner started eating at the end of April. But we all know that only on Oct. 9, Balukh wrote a letter about the suspension of the protest during transfer to colony,” Denisova wrote on Facebook on Oct. 13.
According to her, the health condition of Balukh and three other political prisoners is assessed by Russian doctors as supposedly satisfactory, but they do not provide Kyiv with any medical documents.
