Ukrainian Activist Jailed In Crimea Suspends Hunger Strike
KYIV -- Volodymyr Balukh, a pro-Ukrainian activist jailed in Russian-controlled Crimea, has suspended a months-long hunger strike pending his expected transfer to a prison in Russia.
Archbishop Klyment, the cleric responsible for Crimea in the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Orthodox Church, told reporters in Kyiv on October 9 that Balukh will resume the hunger strike once he arrives at prison in Russia. He is currently being held at a jail in Crimea.
Klyment read aloud from a letter in which Balukh wrote that he "used the last chance to find at least a crack in the occupier's punitive system, where some elements of common sense and honor might be present, and decided to halt the hunger strike."
He said he will resume the protest fast once he is in a prison in Russia.
"I will not allow myself to consume food from the occupiers' hands and wear their prison robes," Balukh wrote, adding that if he dies he would like to be buried in the "unoccupied part of Ukraine."
Initially arrested in December 2016, Balukh was convicted on a weapons-and-explosives possession charge in August 2017.
His conviction and nearly four-year prison sentence was reversed on appeal and returned to a lower court, which issued the same verdict and sentence in January 2018.
A new case against Balukh was opened in March, after the warden of the penal facility where he is being held sued him, claiming that Balukh attacked him.
In July, a court found Balukh guilty of that charge and ruled that he will serve a total of five years in prison for both convictions.
On October 3, the top regional court reduced Balukh's five-year prison term by one month.
Russia seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March 2014, sending in troops and staging a referendum denounced as illegitimate by at least 100 countries, after Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was pushed from power by protests.
Rights groups say that since that time Russia has moved aggressively to prosecute Ukrainian activists and anyone who questions the annexation.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Our multimedia department has now issued Reuters video of the blasts at the munitions depot.
Explosions At Ukrainian Ammo Depot Light Up The Sky, Thousands Evacuated
Amateur video shows explosions and fire lighting up the night sky above an ammunition depot in Ukraine. This was in the early hours of October 9 near the town of Ichnya, some 180 kilometers east of Kyiv. About 12,000 people were evacuated from homes nearby but there were no reports of injuries. Ukrainian officials said they are probing potential causes, including possible sabotage. Ukrainian government forces have been fighting Russia-backed separatists further east in the country since 2014.
Here's an item from RFE/RL's Brussels correspondent Rikard Jozwiak:
Imprisoned Director Sentsov Shortlisted For Sakharov Prize
BRUSSELS -- Oleh Sentsov, a Ukrainian film director imprisoned in Russia after opposing Moscow's takeover of his native Crimea, has been placed on a shortlist of candidates for the 2018 Sakharov Prize.
Sentsov, who said last week that he was forced to end a 145-day hunger strike in a prison in northern Russia, was selected as one of three finalists in a closed October 9 vote by members of the European Parliament's foreign affairs and development committees.
The other shortlisted candidates are Moroccan activist Nasser Zefzafi and 11 NGOs that work to save the lives of migrants traveling across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
The winner will be chosen on October 25 in Strasbourg, and the award ceremony is scheduled for December 12.
The prize, named in honor of the Soviet physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, was established by the European Parliament in 1988 to honor individuals and organizations who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Sentsov, a Crimean native who opposed Russia's 2014 takeover of the Ukrainian peninsula, is serving a 20-year prison term after being convicted of terrorism in a trial that he, human rights groups, and Western governments contend was politically motivated.
He is currently imprisoned in the Far Northern Yamalo-Nenets region of Russia where he started a hunger strike on May 14, demanding that Russia release 64 Ukrainians that he considers political prisoners in Russia.
He ended his hunger strike on October 6, saying he had to do so to avoid being force-fed by the prison authorities.