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Embassy in Kiev confirms Russian volunteer dies in Ukrainian prison

Russian citizen Valery Ivanov died in a penal colony in western Ukraine’s Lvov Region.

© Russian Embassy in Ukraine/TASS

KIEV, December 19. /TASS/. Russia’s Embassy in Ukraine confirmed on Wednesday that Russian citizen Valery Ivanov died in a penal colony in western Ukraine’s Lvov Region.

"We know about the death of Russian citizen Valery Ivanov in the Drogobich colony. This tragic case is under control of the Russian Consulate General in Lvov," a spokesman for the embassy said. According to him, details and causes of the Russian citizen’s death were unknown. "An investigation is underway," he said.

On Tuesday, Olga Kobtseva, a representative of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic in the humanitarian subgroup of the Contact Group, reported about the Russian citizen’s death in the Ukrainian prison.

According to her, Ivanov, a Russian volunteer fighting alongside the LPR, died after being beaten by prison guards. Ivanov among those included in the prisoner swap list for December 2017. However, at the last moment the Kiev authorities removed him and several other Russians from the list.

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