Archbishop Kliment of Simferopol and Crimea has left to visit Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, who is on hunger strike in a high-security penal colony in Russia’s Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region, the press service for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate said.
“On Friday, June 1, 2018, Patriarch Filaret of Kyiv and All Russia-Ukraine signed a letter to the head of the penal colony Bely Medved in Labytnanga, Russia, where political prisoner Oleh Sentsov is being kept. The letter is about granting Archbishop Kliment (Kust) of Simferopol and Crimea an opportunity to visit the prisoner to fulfill his duty as a priest,” the press service said in a statement on June 4.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate said Archbishop Kliment left for the place where Sentsov is serving his term after receiving a blessing from Patriarch Filaret.
The Northern Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Sentsov, who was detained in Crimea in 2014, to 20 years in a high-security penitentiary in August 2015 for an attempt to set up a terrorist group in Crimea.
Sentsov is serving his sentence at Bely Medved (Polar Bear) in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District.
On May 16, Sentsov went on hunger strike and demanded the release of all Ukrainian citizens held in Russia.
The Federal Penitentiary Service’s regional branch said on May 28 that Sentsov had consented to receive “supporting therapy” and is being observed by medical workers.
