19 Jun 2018 21:08

Moskalkova planning to visit Russian Sedikov in Ukrainian prison first

MOSCOW. June 19 (Interfax) - Alexei Sedikov, who was detained in Donbas, the journalist Kirill Vyshinsky, Volunteers of Victory activist Yelena Odnovol, and Russian servicemen Alexander Baranov and Maxim Odintsov will be among the first to be visited by Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova in Ukraine.

"Tatyana Nikolayevna first wants to visit Alexei Sedikov, who has big health problems: he urgently needs a complicated knee surgery, or else he might lose his leg," Moskalkova's spokesman, Alexei Zlovedov, told Interfax.

"Next, Tatyana Nikolayevna wants to visit Kirill Vyshinksy, Yelena Odnovol, Maxim Odintsov, and Alexander Baranov," Zlovedov said.

Moskalkova and her Ukrainian counterpart Liudmyla Denisova are currently negotiating the dates and logistics of visits to these prisoners. "We will announce specific arrangements as soon as they are known," he said.

There are five names on the Russian ombudsman's list, and one visit has already taken place: Moskalkova and the Ukrainian consul in Yekaterinburg visited Dmytro Shtyblykov, who is serving a prison sentence in Omsk, Russia, Zlovedov said.

Other prisoner visits in both countries will be agreed on later, he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Denisova said that she had written to Moskalkova and asked her to help arrange visits to the Ukrainians Volodymyr Balukh, Oleh Sentsov, Stanyslav Klykh, and Oleksandr Kolchenko, who have been jailed in Russia.