Ukrinform holds a performance on first anniversary of Roman Sushchenko's arrest (video from a drone)

Director General of the Ukrinform Ukrainian national news agency Oleksandr Kharchenko said this during the action-performance, which took place near the agency’s office in Kyiv city center on Friday.

"Roman Sushchenko has been held in the Lefortovo detention center in Moscow for a year already. During this time, many large and small events happened. Children were born, Elon Mask launched spacecraft, China tested 5G. Meanwhile, the Kremlin regime tried to make a spy from Roman, using its powerful repressive and propaganda machine. The attempts have turned out to be unconvincing, but Roman is still held in the Lefortovo," Kharchenko said.

Participants in the action wearing T-shirts with lettering #FreeSushchenko and a portrait of the journalist released yellow and blue balloons with Sushchenko’s portrait as a sign of hope for his speedy release from illegal detention in Russia. The balloons symbolized the days spent by Sushchenko in the Lefortovo detention center.

As Oleksandr Kharchenko stressed, Ukraine is making great efforts to free Paris-based Ukrinform correspondent Roman Sushchenko. The Foreign Ministry and the Information Policy Ministry of Ukraine daily keeps track of this issue. In addition, the most influential international organizations support Sushchenko and call on the Kremlin to release him.

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