The award is established by the International Economic and Humanitarian Forum 'Ukrainian ID'; Sentsov gets the prize for the 'immense power in the struggle for freedom'

Oleg Sentsov, the Ukrainian filmmaker and political prisoner in Russia became the first laureate of the Ukrainian ID Award.

The award is established by the International Economic and Humanitarian Forum 'Ukrainian ID'. According to the Facebook post by this organization, Sentsov gets the prize for his 'unbreakable willpower in the struggle for freedom'

The post says that the Forum planned to award Sentsov in absentia on July 7, when the awards ceremony is to take place in Kaniv, central Ukraine. But the current events demand urgent action, so as to speed up his release.

'Oleg Sentsov is an artist, the Ukrainian film director who became the symbol of the desperate struggle for freedom and human dignity all over the world. We planned to announce him the laureate on July 7, along with the other laureates. But now, we cannot lose another day, another minute, in order to increase pressure on the Russian government, which cynically holds Sentsov as a prisoner, pushing him to the limit between life and death', the organizers' committee said in the post.

As is known, Oleg Sentsov was illegally detained in Crimea in 2014, then taken to Russia. They judged him and sentenced him to 20 years of imprisonment at high-security penal colony. The prosecutors charged Sentsov with preparing terrorist acts in the occupied Crimea. Sentsov denies his guilt. On May 14, he announced a timeless hunger strike, demanding to release all Ukrainian political prisoners, illegally held by Russia.