Oleg Sentsov

Oleg Sentsov is a film director, an activist of Avtomaidan, a group of motorists who helped the Maidan. On 11 May 2014 he was arrested on suspicion of terrorism. The investigation calls him a member of the Right Sector and the organiser of the terrorist community who committed and prepared terrorist acts in Simferopol: arson attacks on the offices of the "Russian Community" and "United Russia" (the ruling political party in Russia) (committed) and explosions at the Eternal Flame and the monument to Lenin (prepared). Together with him, anti-fascist Aleksandr Kolchenko was put on trial. Two other defendants in the case, Aleksei Chirniy and Gennady Afanasiev, pleaded guilty, entered into an agreement with the investigation and were sentenced to seven years in a high-security penal colony; Afanasiev stated at the trial that he had denounced Sentsov under pressure during the investigation. The defence argues that there is no evidence of Sentsov's involvement in arson and preparation of explosions. Sentsov claimed that he was tortured by Federal Security Service officers. On 25 August 2015 he was sentenced to 20 years in a strict regime colony.

In September 2017 Sentsov was taken away from the colony in Sakha and was transferred to a colony in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. In May 2018 Sentsov went on hunger strike demanding the release of all Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia. In October, Sentsov was forced to end his hunger strike due to the threat of forced feeding. On 7 September 2019 he was pardoned and released as part of the exchange of Ukrainian political prisoners for groups of people released by Ukraine, arrived on the territory of Ukraine.