Two years ago in Moscow, Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko was arrested by Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, on trumped-up espionage charges. He remains imprisoned today.
He is accused of working for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry to collect secret information about Russia’s National Guard.
But the Ukrinform journalist was visiting Moscow on a private trip in 2016 when security forces abducted him in broad daylight.
On June 4, Sushchenko was sentenced to 12 years in prison. On Sept.12, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the verdict of the Moscow City Court, Ukrinform reported.
Sushchenko worked for Ukrainian online news agency Ukrinform as a foreign correspondent in France. He wrote about Russia’s war against Ukraine after the Kremlin’s illegal annexation of the Crimea and occupation of part of the Donbas in 2014, thereby opening the eyes of the French public to what is really happening in the region.
In his articles, Sushchenko debunked Russian propaganda and showed the reality.
More than 100 other Ukrainians remain imprisoned by Russia since the war.
“Excuse me, dear, for failing to get you, and your companions in misfortune who are held in Russian prisons, out of this occupation for so long time. This is very painful in a heart for your family and all of us who know you,” according to Iryna Gerashchenko, deputy speaker of the Verkhovna Rada.
