Eight Russian citizens serving their prison terms in Ukraine wrote on Wednesday to their country’s president, Vladimir Putin, requesting assistance in returning home through their exchange for Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russia, Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova has said.
“During monitoring visits to places of detention, Russian citizens continue to file applications to the Russian president with the request to return them to Russian territory through the exchange for one of the Ukrainian political prisoners. Today such applications were written by Vyacheslav Vysotsky (Cherkasy penal colony No. 62), Valery Ivanov and Alexander Valekhidis (Drohobych penal colony No. 40), Vladislav Grechin (Odesa penitentiary institution No. 21), Viktor Ageyev (Romny penal colony No. 56), Oleg Doronin (Horodysche penal colony No. 96), Denis Sidorov and Evgeny Shatalov (Zhytomyr penitentiary institution No. 8),” Denisova wrote on her Facebook page on Wednesday.
She recalled that on August 2, a similar statement was submitted by Russian citizen Alexei Sedikov, who is serving his term for terrorism in the Bucha colony, and on August 14, such statements were submitted by Alexander Sattarov and Farukh Kamalov, who are currently held in the Lukianivka pretrial detention center in Kyiv.
“These letters will also be sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine so that they are delivered by diplomatic mail to the Russian presidential administration,” Denisova said.
