Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov, who was convicted in Russia of terrorism, is still in the Butyrskaya prison, a source familiar with the situation told Interfax.
“Yesterday he was placed in the special unit of the Butyrskaya prison, also known as Detention Facility No. 2. He is still there,” the source said.
When commenting on conflicting reports about the whereabouts of Sentsov, who is one of the main figures in the planned exchange, including information that he is in the Lefortovo detention center, the source said: “First, this information is strictly confidential; second, journalists can’t locate him because he has been placed in the special unit of the Butyrskaya prison, which only authorized personnel have access to.”
In their first phone call, held on Kyiv’s initiative on July 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the situation in Donbas, a potential prisoner exchange, and prospects for further talks in the Normandy format.
Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada human rights commissioner Liudmyla Denisova and Russian human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova met in mid-July to exchange lists of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners. They agreed to help them.
The Ukrainian ombudsman’s list contained the names of 150 Ukrainian citizens, and there were 34 Russian citizens on Moskalkova’s list.
In August 2015, the North Caucasus District Military Court in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don gave Sentsov, who was detained in Crimea in 2014, a 20-year sentence in a high-security penitentiary for plotting a terrorist act. Until recently, the possibility of including Sentsov in the Russia-Ukraine prisoner swap was not considered, but it was reported on August 29 that Sentsov was transported to Moscow and placed in Detention Facility No.2.
