Poroshenko makes preliminary agreement on transfer of two citizens from Russian prisons
On the 29th of May, the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko stated in his interview with Inter TV Channel that there are provisional agreements between Kiev and Moscow on the return of two Ukrainians, Yuri Soloshenko and Gennady Afanasiev, who were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment in Russia.
“According to the provisional agreement, we can expect the return of Afanasiev and Soloshenko to their native land,” Poroshenko said. At the same time, he noted that he was far from making promises.
President Poroshenko also reported that negotiations are ongoing for the release of 25 Ukrainians who are detained in Donetsk and Luhansk. According to Poroshenko, the dialogue is under way within the Trilateral Contact Group on the resolution of the conflict in south-eastern Ukraine as well as within the Normandy format.
“We are at the finish line concerning the conditions, terms and procedure of their return,” the President noted.
Gennady Afanasiev, Simferopol photographer and a defendant in the case of filmmaker Gennadyevich Sentsov, was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment in a maximum security penal colony on terrorism charges. The former Director of Poltava plant Znamya, Yuri Sholoshenko, was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment in a maximum security penal colony for espionage.