The DPR refuses to hand over scholar Ihor Kozlovsky to Ukraine
Donetsk scientist-theologian Ihor Kozlovsky has been held captive for two years by the separatist organization, the Donetsk People’s Republic. This was stated by one of Kozlovsky’s relatives, the PR-manager of the winner of Eurovision 2016, Jamala, Denis Kozlovski.
Denis posted on Facebook a message calling for help in releasing his 63-year-old uncle.
"The DPR’s representatives refuse to include Ihor Kozlovsky in the lists of prisoners for exchange, with a cryptic claim to the effect that ‘he is a citizen of the DPR and is not subject to extradition to Ukraine.’ "So, after a year of struggle, we have stopped pinning our hopes on the Minsk group negotiations," Denis Kozlovsky told LB.ua.
He noted that their relatives would try to attract the attention of world media to the situation, so that the scientist’s possible release could find an audience at the level of diplomatic meetings.
"Today, the world-famous scientist-theologian Ihor Kozlovsky turns 63. It's the second birthday in a row that he is spending in a DPR prison, thrown there under false accusations, devoid of communication with family and friends," Denis wrote on Facebook, calling for support for the campaign to the release the scientist.
Ihor Kozlovsky was arrested in January 2016 in Donetsk. According to his wife, Valentina, he was arrested for his "wrong conversation" on Facebook.
In the summer of 2016 the Presidential Envoy on the peaceful settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine and representative of Ukraine in the Humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group, Iryna Herashchenko reported that DPR representatives claimed that Ihor Kozlovsky was arrested for being a spy, as well as for the manufacturing the ammunition.
"The absurdity of these statements is clear and only highlights the type of people we are forced to deal with in order to free Ukrainians," Herashchenko wrote in her social network, commenting on the progress of negotiations for the release of 25 critically ill Ukrainians held in prisons of the DPR.
Ihor Kozlovsky is a Ukrainian scientist with a PhD in historical sciences who taught religious studies at Donetsk National Technical University, the head of the Donetsk branch of the Ukrainian Association of Theologists. According to his wife, Ihor stayed in Donetsk after the start of the occupation because he was caring for a bedridden relative.