Ukraine in OSCE calls on Russia to unblock process of release of political prisoners

Ambassador Ihor Prokopchuk, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organizations in Vienna, said this in a statement during the meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday.

“We condemn the repression of Ukrainian citizens illegally detained by the Russian authorities, in particular the most recent extension by the Krasnodar court of the Russian Federation of the arrest of Ukrainian political prisoner Pavlo Hryb until April 24, 2019,” Prokopchuk said.

The representative of Ukraine stressed that Russia must stop the repression and persecution of Ukrainian citizens in the illegally occupied Crimea and fulfill its obligations as the occupying power under international law.

He also recalled that during the recent meeting of the President of Ukraine, the President of France and the Chancellor of Germany in Paris, a strong common support was expressed for the need to release all illegally detained persons and political prisoners by the end of this year.

“We strongly urge the Russian Federation to unblock this process without delay, in relation to Ukrainian citizens both in the occupied territories and in the Russian prisons,” the diplomat said.

As reported, Pavlo Hryb disappeared on August 24, 2017 in Belarus, where he went to the city of Gostomel to date a girl with whom he communicated on social networking sites.

In September, it became known that Pavlo Hryb was in a detention center in Krasnodar (Russia), charged with terrorism. At the same time, his lawyer said that Pavlo had been kidnapped by FSB officers.

On November 7, the North Caucasus Military District Court in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don extended the arrest of Ukrainian political prisoner Pavlo Hryb until April 24, 2019.

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