Greetings, dear Ukrainians! Using an infrequent case to address you, let me outline the goals and the course of the protest hunger strike in which I am in a position, - reads a letter from Vladimir Balukh published in "Crimea. Realities ".

Not once, during the whole stay in captivity, I did not use prison "balance", and voluntarily I will not do it under any circumstances. On March 14 of this year, when the next deceitful verdict on the trumped-up case against me acquired "force," I decided to go on a hunger strike as a manifestation of my personal contempt for the occupation regime and their pathetic attempts at any cost to deprive all those who disagree with their Horde-FSB "ideology" of misanthropy.

On March 15, I filed an application to the head of SIZO No. 1 of Simferopol with a request to ensure proper conditions for the possibility of exercising his right. Since March 19, having gone through moral abuse, theft of personal belongings and beatings by some SIZO workers, I finally managed to get official recognition of my protest with transfer to a separate cell. Both provocations and moral pressure to discredit me and my protest have since only intensified.

On the 25th day of the hunger strike, after consulting with the Archbishop of the Crimean Kliment, in order to exclude the possibility of forcible feeding and unauthorized use of medical means of life-support of the organism, and to not bring irreparable grief to my relatives, I decided to go to another mode of protest: from that day I daily use two glasses of oatmeal, 50-70 grams of biscuits from black bread and I drink tea with honey.

Only God knows how long this balancing will continue at the zero mark, but at present other methods of exposing the essence of the processes taking place in the Ukrainian Crimea occupied by Muscovy are inaccessible to me.

I hope for your understanding. Glory to Ukraine!.

Information: the activist continues an unlimited hunger strike, which he announced on March 19, 2018.

The Federal Security Service of Russia detained Vladimir Balukh on December 8, 2016. Employees of the department claimed that they found in the attic of his house 90 rounds and several TNT checkers. The court in the Crimea found him guilty of possession of ammunition and sentenced him to 3 years and 5 months in a colony-settlement, as well as a fine of 10 thousand rubles (about 4600 hryvnia).

The defense of Balukh and human rights activists assert that he was a victim of repression for his pro-Ukrainian position - because of the flag of Ukraine, which was in the courtyard of his house. Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine and the US insist on the release of the Ukrainian authorities by the Ukrainian authorities.

Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Join also the TSN group. Blogs on facebook and follow the updates of the section!.