The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine strongly condemns the decision by Russian Supreme Court to uphold the verdict to Ukrainian citizens Oleh Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko, who were sentenced to 20 and 10 years in a maximum-security prison.

The politically motivated cases against  Oleh Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko as well as the illegal detention in Russia of other Ukrainian citizens prove the lack of justice in Russian Federation. These cases are yet another symbols of cynicism of Russia’s current policy.

We urge to release immediately the politically convicted Ukrainian citizens  Oleh Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko as well as other Ukrainian political prisoners, who are being detained by Russia on trumped-up charges.

We call on the international community, human rights institutions to exert all the legal and political measures possible to release them and to return back to Ukraine all our citizens who are the political hostages in Russia.