Former Kremlin political prisoner Mykola Karpiuk killed in action

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

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

Details: Artur Palatnyi, a friend of Mykola's, said he was killed on 19 September at the front line.

He noted that Mykola had "gone 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. He was born in Rivne Oblast and participated in the "Ukraine without Kuchma" protest, the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity. After the Revolution of Dignity, he became deputy leader of the Right Sector political bloc.

Background:

• In 2016, Mykola Karpiuk and Stanislav Klykh were sentenced in Russia to 22 years and six months and 20 years respectively in prison on charges of killing Russian citizens in Chechnya in the 1990s.
• Both stated in court that their testimony had been extracted under torture and threats of violence against their families, and they pleaded not guilty. Stanislav served his sentence in Chelyabinsk Oblast and Mykola in Vladimir Oblast.
• On 7 September 2019, 35 people returned to Ukraine as part of an exchange: 24 captured sailors and 11 political prisoners, including Mykola Karpiuk and Stanislav Klykh.
• Mykola recounted that he and Klykh were tortured in Russia.
• Later, former political prisoners Mykola Karpiuk and Volodymyr Balukh worked at the Office of the Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner.

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