Kyiv asks UN to ensure that Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia have access to doctors
Ambassador of Ukraine Yuriy Klimenko appealed to the United Nations with a request to ensure that doctors have access to the Ukrainian political prisoners who are in Russia, reported the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN and other international organizations in Geneva.
“Since every hour is crucial for Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia whose health continues to deteriorate, we appeal to the UN special rapporteur and call for ways to ensure their right to health care and access to independent doctors,” the office wrote on Twitter.
Klimenko stressed that “millions of Ukrainian citizens, under the conditions of Russian occupation, are deprived of the opportunity and right to health care.”
Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov, sentenced to a prison camp in Russia, announced on May 14 that he was starting an indefinite hunger strike, demanding the release of all Ukrainian political prisoners who are in Russian prisons.
In addition to Sentsov, two other Ukrainians are also on hunger strikes in Russia and Crimea: Alexander Shumkov and Vladimir Balukh, who has been on a hunger strike in a Crimean prison for almost three months and is in critical condition.
Earlier it was reported that the permanent representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, Volodymyr Yelchenko, sent a list of Ukrainian political prisoners to UN Secretary General António Guterres.