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Russian Foreign Ministry to seek justice for Russian citizen arrested in Ukraine

Russian national Oleg Khlyupin is accused of an attempt to join a terrorist organization

© Anton Novoderezhkin/ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. The Russian side will follow the fate of Russian national Oleg Khlyupin arrested in Ukraine and will make every effort to make sure that justice prevails, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a press briefing on Thursday.

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In February, Khlyupin travelled from Russia to the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic to visit his blind disabled father who lives in the part of the Luhansk region controlled by the Kiev authorities. While crossing the demarcation line, he was seized by armed people and subjected to violence - torture and death threats - by the Ukrainian military and members of the so-called territorial battalions Aidar and Tornado.

In early March, the Russian national was brought to Kiev in the trunk of a car and taken to a detention center. Under the investigators’ pressure Khlyupin agreed to sign a testimony against himself when promised that he would be released. "A video recording of his confessionary evidence was organized," Zakharova said. "When a meeting with the Russian consul took place, our citizen said that before he was brought in front of a TV camera, it took a make-up artist four hours to hide his bruises.

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson drew attention to the fact that the Ukrainian side had deliberately hindered the provision of consular access to Khlyupin spreading fake stories in the media claiming that nobody in Russia cared about his future.

Currently Khlyupin is held in custody, Zakharova said. A criminal case has been opened against him, the Russian national is accused of an attempt to join a terrorist organization.

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