KYIV. June 25 (Interfax) - Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova says she has been denied a video link with the convicted Ukrainian Oleh Sentsov.
"The information on the state of Oleh Sentsov and Volodymyr Balukh is quite contradictory: that they are on hunger strike or, on the contrary, they have stopped their hunger strikes, that they are taking nutritious mixtures and gaining weight. They have denied a video link with Oleh. They are not providing a photo," she said on her Facebook page on Monday.
Denisova says she is outraged by the fact that the Russian authorities keep convincing the global community that "everything is OK with the Ukrainian political prisoners," while the defense lawyers are saying the opposite. "All these things cause a lot of concern and mistrust!" she said.
The human rights commissioner said she needs to see Sentsov, Balukh, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Stanyslav Klykh, Roman Sushchenko and other Ukrainian "political prisoners" held in Russia and in the "occupied" Crimea and demands that Russia urgently provide her with such access.
Denisova says the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry had again asked the Russian authorities to provide her with access to the Ukrainian "political prisoners," citizens of Ukraine held in Russia and Crimea.
The Ukrainian human rights commissioner has been in Russia since June 14. She has not been able to meet with any of the Ukrainian prisoners yet.