The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine demands that Russia release Ukrainian activist Volodymyr Balukh who was imprisoned in Crimea and declared a hunger strike.
“We demand that the Russian Federation immediately release political prisoner Balukh from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea who has been on a hunger strike since March 19. The case was fabricated,”a spokesperson of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Mariana Betsa said on Twitter.
As reported, Ukrainian farmer Balukh was arrested on December 8, 2016, in his house in the village of Serebrianka of Rozdolne district of Crimea temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. Russian authorities charged him with possession of ammunition.
In January 2018, Crimea’s Rozdolne District Court sentenced Balukh to three years and seven months of imprisonment in a low-security penal colony and to a fine of 10,000 Russian rubles.
The Supreme Court in the occupied Crimea at a session on March 14, changed the verdict against Ukrainian activist Volodymyr Balukh, excluding from the charges the point that he acquired ammunition. Therefore, the verdict was changed to three years and five months of imprisonment in a low-security penal colony.
