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Lithuania strongly condemns today’s decision by the Rostov-on-Don Court of the Russian Federation to sentence the Ukrainian citizens - the filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and activist Oleksandr Kolchenko, reads the letter sent by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkevičius to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin on 25 August.

The Minister noted that Lithuania supported Ukraine’s position that actions taken by the Russian law enforcement bodies against the Ukrainian citizens Sentsov, Kolchenko, also the pilot Nadia Savchenko and other Ukrainian citizens – the unlawful detention, restrictions of their right to defence and imprisonment – violated the basic principles of international law, human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Lithuania calls on the Government of Russia and law enforcement authorities to respect human rights and to responsibly fulfil their international commitments in this field, to objectively examine the circumstances surrounding the illegal detention and imprisonment of the Ukrainian citizens, to punish those responsible for these actions and to immediately release the Ukrainian citizens that have been illegally kept in detention on the territory of the Russian Federation. Lithuania calls on the Russian Federation to ensure the safe return of these Ukrainian citizens to their homeland.