Political prisoner Andriy Kolomiyets returned to Ukraine after 10 years in prison in the Russian Federation

The Kremlinʼs political prisoner and Maidan activist Andriy Kolomiyets, who was illegally convicted and held by the Russian Federation for 10 years, was returned to Ukraine.

This was reported at a briefing by the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Heorhii Tykhyi, reports "We Ukraine".

"After the term expired, the Russian Federation deported him to the Russian-Georgian border. As soon as the Ukrainian Embassy in Georgia learned about this, the consuls established contact with him, helped with the documents, and then organized his move to Ukraine," he said.

What preceded

Andriy Kolomiyets, born in 1993, was found guilty on June 10, 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in a maximum-security penal colony. He was charged with attempted murder of two former “Berkut” officers during the Maidan events in Kyiv under Articles 105 and 30 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as well as possession of narcotic substances under Article 228. The Ukrainian was detained in Kabardino-Balkaria and then transferred to Crimea.

Human rights activists said the case was completely fabricated and politically motivated. The Prosecutor Generalʼs Office of Ukraine denied the involvement of Ukrainian Andriy Kolomiyets in the attacks on the “Berkut”.

Andriy Kolomiyets was released from the colony in Krasnodar on January 15, 2025. However, immediately after his release, he was detained and sent to the Temporary Detention Center for Foreigners of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Gulkevytsky District.

The next day, the Russian court decided to keep him in the Center until April 14. And at the end of the month, on the 23rd, the Crimean Human Rights Group reported that this period had been extended for another 90 days.

After the term ended, Russia deported Kolomiets to Georgia without documents on July 7. He was held for several days at the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint on the Russian-Georgian border, in North Ossetia. Kolomiets complained about the inhumane conditions of detention in the buffer zone. And on July 10, he was issued the necessary Ukrainian documents.

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