NEW YORK, December 25. /TASS/. Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko serving a 20-year prison term in the United States has written a letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) asking for medical assistance, his lawyer Alexei Tarasov told TASS.

In his letter, Yaroshenko, who suffers from several long-term illnesses, describes his health state and notes that he is not provided with medical assistance in the US jail. "He asks to allow independent specialists to him in jail, either Russian doctors or doctors of the Red Cross, to examine him," Tarasov said.

Yaroshenko’s relatives have either sent this letter already or it will be soon handed over to the ICRC, the humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland.

"Konstantin’s health arouses concerns. He has been taking painkillers over the past four or five months which he has been forced by buy himself in a shop," Tarasov said, adding that access to the shop was limited in the past few days as one prisoner attacked a guard.