Former Kremlin political prisoner Mykola Karpiuk killed in action

Former Kremlin political prisoner, public and political figure, and co-founder of Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian People's Self-Defence (UNA-UPSO), Mykola Karpiuk has been killed in action.

Source: former MP Artur Palatnyi; Viktor Yahun, former deputy head of the Security Service of Ukraine

Details: Mykola was killed on 19 September at the frontline, said his friend Artur Palatnyi.

Artur noted that Mykola "went to fight to defend his native land even after turning 60, because for him love for Ukraine was not words, but the work of a lifetime."

Mykola was 62 years old. He was born in Rivne Oblast, participated in the Ukraine without Kuchma protest, the Orange Revolution, and the Revolution of Dignity. After the Revolution of Dignity, he became deputy head of the Right Sector political wing.

Background:

• Mykola Karpiuk and Stanislav Klykh were sentenced in Russia in 2016 to 22 years and six months and 20 years, respectively, on charges of killing Russian citizens in Chechnya in the 1990s.
• In court, both stated that their testimony had been extracted under torture and threats of violence against their families, and they did not admit guilt. Stanislav served his sentence in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Mykola – in Vladimir Oblast of the Russian Federation.
• On 7 September 2019, 35 people returned to Ukraine as part of an exchange, including 24 captured sailors and political prisoners Sentsov, Kolchenko, Balukh, Sushchenko, Karpiuk, Klykh, Hryb, Bekirov, Syzonovych and Yevhen and Artur Panov.
• Mykola recounted that he and another political prisoner, Stanislav Klykh, were tortured in Russia.
• Later, former political prisoners Mykola Karpiuk and Volodymyr Balukh worked in the Office of the Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner.

Your support on Patreon helps us keep the news free and accessible.

Originally reported by Ukrainska Pravda by KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO. Read the full story at the source.