Ukraine’s representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group, First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Iryna Gerashchenko has said the reports about intentions to exchange Ukrainian citizens Roman Sushchenko and Oleh Sentsov imprisoned in Russia for former Ukrainian servicemen Alexander Baranov and Maxim Odintsov is not true.
“The statements concerning citizens O. (Odintsov) and B. (BaranovIF), as well as our film director and journalist, for whose freedom we are fighting, unfortunately, are not true. I have to refute other people’s statements to stop the process irresponsible comments on the air. To stop what is now likely to damage the negotiations and the process of freeing the guys,” she wrote on her Facebook page on Friday.
Earlier on Friday, the office of Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Valeria Lutkovska reported that Sushchenko and Sentsov could be exchanged for former Ukrainian servicemen Baranov and Odintsov who served in the Russian army and were convicted by Ukrainian courts for treason and desertion.
Former servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Baranov and Odintsov, had crossed over to serve in the Russian army in 2014. On November 20, 2016, they were detained by officers of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) near the Chonhar crossing point at the border with Crimea.
On November 22, 2016, Mykolaiv’s Central District Court ordered that the two servicemen accused of desertion (Ukrainian Criminal Code Article 408, Part 1) be taken into custody as a pretrial restrictive measure. The two were also charged with high treason (Article 111, Part 1) the same day.
On February 13, 2018, Baranov and Odintsov were sentenced for treason and desertion to 13 and 14 years in prison respectively.
