Russia has once again refused to repatriate Ukrainians Oleg Sentsov and Olexandr Kolchenko to their motherland. Serhiy Petukhov, the Deputy Justice Minister of Ukraine for European Integration Affairs, reported that via Facebook.
‘Russia had no grounds for doing that; they treat Sentsov and Kolchenko as Russian citizens. This citizenship was forcefully imposed on all residents of Crimea during the annexation of the peninsula. Both of these actions are insolent by the standards of the international law,’ he posted.
The Russian foreign ministry released a document, in which it pointed out that Sentsov and Kolchenko both have Russian citizenship, while Ukraine and Russia never signed any document to regulate the double citizenship issue.
‘The Russian side sees no grounds to pass the citizens to Ukraine,’ the document reads.