EU leaders call on Russia to release Sushchenko and other Ukrainian political prisoners

This is stated in a joint statement following the 20th EU-Ukraine Summit in Brussels on July 9.

"We called for the immediate release of all illegally detained and imprisoned Ukrainian citizens in the Crimean peninsula and in Russia, including Crimean Tatar activists as well as Oleg Sentsov, Volodymyr Balukh, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Stanislav Klykh, Oleksandr Shumkov and Roman Sushchenko," the document reads.

In turn, European Council President Donald Tusk expressed hope that the release of Ukrainian political prisoners would be on the agenda of a meeting between the U.S. and Russian leaders in Helsinki next week.

He said that he would also raise this issue during a meeting with the U.S. ambassador to the EU.

About 70 Ukrainian political prisoners are currently being held in Russia and in occupied Crimea, among them Ukrinform journalist Roman Sushchenko, who was sentenced to 12 years in a high-security penal colony for alleged espionage.

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