Sushchenko to have long meeting with family in next few days - Feygin

"Roman Sushchenko will meet with his wife and daughter in the coming days. Permission for a long meeting was received back in December last year," he said.

According to Feygin, the journalist's living conditions in the colony have improved.

"I can also say that the administration of the colony, where Sushchenko is serving his term, reacted to a series of appeals from both Roman himself and Ukrainian human rights commissioner [Liudmyla] Denisova and improved Sushchenko's detention conditions. Roman's close relatives will learn at a meeting with him about other details of the situation with his stay in IK-11 [Penal Colony No. 11]," Feygin said.

As reported, Ukrinform's Paris-based correspondent Roman Sushchenko was illegally detained on September 30, 2016 in Moscow, where he arrived on a private trip. On October 7, 2016, he was charged with "espionage." Russia's FSB claimed that Sushchenko is a member of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. The latter denied this allegation.

On June 4, 2018, the Moscow City Court sentenced Sushchenko to 12 years in a high-security penal colony. The Supreme Court of Russia upheld the verdict on September 12.

On October 8, it was reported that Sushchenko had been moved to a penal colony. On November 7, the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) informed Ukraine's Embassy in Moscow that Sushchenko had been transferred to Penal Colony No. 11 of the FSIN directorate for the Kirov region (the town of Kirovo-Chepetsk, the village of Utrobino).