Photo: Ukrinform

The premiere of the documentary “Putin’s Hostages: Ukrainian political prisoners of the Kremlin” was held on 23 January 2019, at a PACE session in Strassbourg. The film, which tells about the phenomenon of the 70 Ukrainian political prisoners of the Kremlin on the example of three of them – Yevhen Panov, Pavlo Hryb, and Bekir Dehermendzhi – was timed for the PACE session on which a resolution on the 24 Ukrainian sailors who were imprisoned by Russia after the attack on Ukrainian ships on 25 November 2018 near the Kerch Strait was adopted.

Because of this, relatives of the Ukrainian Navy sailor POWs – Olga Grytsenko and Viktor Soroka, as well as the special respresentative of the Ukrainian office of the Ombudsman Oleh Trokhymenko, the coordinator of the group of lawyers defending the interests of the sailors (and in the past the lawyer of a number of Ukrainian political prisoners of the Kremlin) Nikolai Polozov were present at the screening and held meetings with politicians and diplomats present at the PACE session. Apart from that, the film was presented by Polish filmmakers Bozydar Pajak and Piotr Malinowski, and the producer Alya Shandra.

“You saw what Putin’s Russia does with Ukrainian citizens. This is happening because there is no decisive and rigid response of Europe and the West to the Kremlin’s actions,” said Nikolai Polozov at the screening.

He warned European countries and citizens about further Russian aggression if the actions of the Kremlin will not meet an adequate response.

“If we don’t call things by their names, the Kremlin will go further and this will concern not only Ukraine,” Polozov urged.

Some photos from the screening in the post of Ukrainian MP Volodymyr Ariev, who was one of its organizers.

The movie was created by Polish filmmaker and journalist Bożydar Pająk, journalist Piotr Malinowski, and is produced by Alya Shandra, editor in chief of Euromaidan Press. The film will be in English with Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish subtitles.

Follow the news about Putin’s Hostages on its facebook page.

Contact the authors: putinshostages (a) gmail.com

The creation of this movie was possible thanks to the financial support of the British Embassy in Ukraine as part of the project “Creating a documentary on Ukrainian political prisoners of the Kremlin” implemented by the NGO Euromaidan Press. The ideas expressed in the movie are that of the authors and may differ from the official position of the government of the United Kingdom. Read an interview with Nikolai Polozov: How recent PACE resolution invoking Geneva convention will help free Ukrainian sailors captured by Russia

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Tags: #LetMyPeopleGo, PACE, Political prisoners