Russia officially confirms Ukrainian citizenship of Sentsov, Kolchenko

The Ukrainian citizenship of Oleg Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko has been officially confirmed and raises no doubt.

This is stated on the website of the Russian Ombudsperson.

As stated, “Oleg Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko, who had been residing in the territory of Crimea before the arrest, asked to consider them to be only Ukrainian citizens.” Although they “did not officially refused the Russian citizenship in a month term [after the annexation of Crimea],” they did not file the application for issuance of the Russian passports and, accordingly, did not received the passports.

In the conversation with the authorities, the Russian Ombudsperson has insisted that Sentsov and Kolchenko are the citizens of Ukraine, regardless of whether they have theoretically received Russian citizenship.

“The Ukrainian citizenship of Sentsov and Kolchenko has been officially confirmed and raises no doubts,” the Ombudsperson concluded.

As a reminder, the report of the Russian Ombudsperson dated March 24 reads that Sentsov and Kolchenko are the citizens of Ukraine.