08:02, 13 August 2019

Another political prisoner Oleksandr Shumkov stated that recently Ukraine’s consul visited him and as Shumkov understood, talks on the exchange are being disrupted again, as Russian side says “there are no judicial tools for that”

Ukrainian political prisoner Volodymyr Balukh will stay in the punishment cell till August 13, as another political prisoner Oleksandr Shumkov, who is now in the same prison, wrote to the Latvian activist Tatyana Ladze, Ukrinform reported. “Vova is in the punishment cell till August 13, till Tuesday, if the term in the punishment cell is not prolonged. They don’t want to put us together. One year and four months is left,” Shumkov wrote.

He stated that recently Ukraine’s consul visited him and as Shumkov understood, talks on the exchange are being disrupted again, as Russian side says “there are no judicial tools for that”. According to the political prisoner, these are excuses. He suggests that Russian authority is keeping Ukrainian political prisoner hoping to “change” them, to make them love “tsar and his policy”.

Volodymyr Balukh was detained on December 8 in 2016. The officials of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation claimed they had found 90 bullets and TNT blocks in his house. But Balukh and his protectors say he is punished for the pro-Ukrainian opinion, as there always was the flag of Ukraine in his yard.

(C) 112 UA