REUTERS

The Polish Sejm has called on Russia to release Ukrainian political prisoners, including illegally convicted Oleh Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko.

"The Polish Sejm adopted a resolution urging the Russian Federation to release Ukrainian political prisoners, including film director Oleh Sentsov and Crimean activist Oleksandr Kolchenko. As noted in the resolution, millions of people in the democratic world are demanding this," the Ukrainian Embassy in Warsaw wrote on Facebook on June 15.

Read alsoEuropean Parliament urges Russia to release Sentsov, other Ukrainian political prisoners

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In turn, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin thanked the Polish Sejm.

"I am sincerely grateful to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland for the adoption of the resolution calling on Russia to release Ukrainian political prisoners, including Sentsov. With such partners as Poland we are strong and united in protecting the values and lives of innocent people," he tweeted.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Russia's security forces detained Sentsov together with Oleksandr Kolchenko in occupied Crimea in May 2014 on charges of organizing terrorist attacks on the peninsula.

In August 2015, the North Caucasus District Military Court in Russia's Rostov-on-Don sentenced Sentsov to 20 years in a high-security penal colony. Kolchenko was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Both men pleaded not guilty.

Kolchenko is serving his sentence in Correctional Colony No. 6 (Kopeysk, Russia's Chelyabinsk region).

Sentsov declared hunger strike on May 14 indefinitely.

He went on hunger strike against the actions of the Kremlin, demanding the release of all the Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russia.