Former Kremlin political prisoner Mykola Karpiuk killed in action
A public figure, co-founder of the UNA-UNSO organization and former Kremlin political prisoner, Mykola Karpiuk, was killed in action fighting against Russian forces.
As reported by Ukrinform, several politicians and bloggers, including politician Artur Palatnyi, public figure Yurii Honcharenko and former SSU Deputy Head Viktor Yahun, reported his death on social media.
“Mykola Karpiuk has been killed... (...) This is a loss that cannot be measured or described in words. A man who devoted his entire life to Ukraine, who never chased fame, money or positions. A man who endured torture in a Russian prison. He was abducted in 2014 because they understood his importance to Ukraine’s national movement,” Yurii Honcharenko said on Facebook.
Viktor Yahun wrote on Facebook that Mykola Karpiuk was one of those people for whom Ukraine was not just a word, but part of life itself.
“He made his choice long ago and remained faithful to it under any circumstances. He went through a great deal of hardship. What could have broken another person did not break him. He remained true to himself – straightforward, principled and caring,” Yahun said.
Artur Palatnyi also reported Karpiuk’s death. He said he knew him personally and described him as a man who had devoted his life to the struggle for Ukraine.
As reported, on September 7, 2019, Ukraine and Russia conducted a 35-for-35 prisoner exchange. Eleven Ukrainians who had been illegally convicted returned home: Oleh Sentsov, Roman Sushchenko, Mykola Karpiuk, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Volodymyr Balukh, Stanislav Klykh, Oleksii Sizonovych, Pavlo Hryb, Edem Bekirov, Yevhen Panov and Artur Panov, as well as 24 sailors who had been captured by Russia near the Kerch Strait in November 2018.
On May 26, 2016, a court in Chechnya sentenced Karpiuk and Klykh to 22.5 and 20 years in prison, respectively. They were accused of killing Russian servicemen in Grozny in 1994–1995.
According to the Russian investigators’ version, Klykh and Karpiuk were members of the UNA-UNSO organization and, in late 1994 and early 1995, fought against Russian federal forces as part of the armed formations of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. At the hearings, the prosecution provided no evidence that Klykh and Karpiuk had been in Chechnya during that period.