NEW YORK, December 25. /TASS/. Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko serving a 20-year prison term in the United States has written a letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) asking for medical assistance, his lawyer Alexei Tarasov told TASS.

In his letter, Yaroshenko, who suffers from several long-term illnesses, describes his health state and notes that he is not provided with medical assistance in the US jail. "He asks to allow independent specialists to him in jail, either Russian doctors or doctors of the Red Cross, to examine him," Tarasov said.

Yaroshenko’s relatives have either sent this letter already or it will be soon handed over to the ICRC, the humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland.

"Konstantin’s health arouses concerns. He has been taking painkillers over the past four or five months which he has been forced by buy himself in a shop," Tarasov said, adding that access to the shop was limited in the past few days as one prisoner attacked a guard.

Yaroshenko has no other possibility to buy the pills and he is running out of the medication. The Russian had never before sent similar letters to the ICRC or other international organizations, the lawyer added.

In November, Russian Foreign Ministry Envoy for Human Rights, Democracy and Supremacy of Law Konstantin Dolgov said the health condition of Yaroshenko continued deteriorating.

The Russian pilot failed to receive treatment despite having several long-term diseases, including heart weakness. "We have not received an answer from the US authorities and Washington up until now to our tough representation made to the US embassy over the inadmissibility of the situation developing around Konstantin Yaroshenko."

Yaroshenko was arrested in Liberia in May 2010 for allegedly intending to transport a large shipment of cocaine. He was taken to the US and sentenced in September 2011 to 20 years in jail.