The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) condemns the politically motivated verdict by Russian governing authorities against Nadiya Savchenko and calls for the international community to urgently adopt a Savchenko Act that, similarly to the Magnitsky Act, would introduce targeted sanctions against Russian governing authorities who insolently violate international laws, and specifically, the human rights of citizens of Ukraine.
The Magnitsky Act foresees the refusal of visas, impediments to conducting financial transactions and the freezing of assets for individuals responsible for violating human rights.
As of today, there are numerous Ukrainian citizens known to be unlawfully imprisoned in the Russian Federation, including Nadiya Savchenko, Oleh Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko.
On 22 March 2016, Russian governing authorities pronounced their verdict with a 22-year sentence of imprisonment for the former Ukrainian Air Force pilot, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine and delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Nadiya Savchenko, who, in June 2014, was kidnapped in Ukraine by terrorists of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic and security forces of the Russian Federation, forcibly transported across the border into the Russian Federation and illegally imprisoned on politically motivated charges.
“The Ukrainian World Congress condemns this politically motivated verdict by Russian governing authorities against Nadiya Savchenko and calls for the international community to urgently adopt a Savchenko Act, similar to the Magnitsky Act, to prevent the continued gross violations by Russian governing authorities of international law and help free unlawfully imprisoned Ukrainian citizens,” stated UWC President Eugene Czolij.
