Nurse Danilovich, sentenced to seven years, has been on hunger strike for more than a week in Simferopol pre-detention centre

Irina Danilovich, a nurse and civic activist who collaborates with several Ukrainian publications, went on hunger strike on 21 March after months of trying to get a doctor's examination.

"The Ґrati wrote:

She is in the Simferopol detention centre and is demanding that the Russian authorities provide her with medical care. She is bothered by constant headaches and, according to her father, there is a threat that she will lose her hearing because of her otitis media.

During the hunger strike, Danilovich was twice taken from Simferopol to Feodosia, where she is familiarising herself with the records of her trial before her appeal.

Her father, Bronislav Danilovich, met with the administration of the pre-trial detention facility, but was unable to learn anything about his daughter's condition. Many international human rights organizations and Ukrainian authorities reacted to the hunger strike.

Journalists report that her health began to deteriorate sharply after her sentence in December last year, but the SIZO did not respond to her complaints. An ambulance visited her at the detention centre, which diagnosed her as having an "acute reaction to stress. Symptomatic hypertension. Acute left-sided otitis media".

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry called Danilovich's case "egregious".

And the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, wrote in his Telegram the day after the hunger strike:

"As Ukraine's ombudsman, I draw the attention of the international community to this case. This is a violation of human rights and freedoms and another hypocritical act towards Ukrainian citizens on the occupied peninsula. Irina Danilovich, like all illegally detained persons, must be released and provided with all necessary medical treatment.

"TheҐati claim that it is not only in Ukraine that Danilovich's hunger strike is being monitored:

• The Irish human rights organisation Frontline Defenders, which defends persecuted human rights defenders and journalists around the world, has been advocating for Danilovich since her detention and arrest;
• The Committee to Protect Journalists' Rights has included Irina Danilovich in its list of Crimean journalists whose release they demand from the Russian authorities;
• The London office of the human rights organization Amnesty International sent an urgent appeal to the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, Tatyana Moskalkova, regarding Danilovich. The human rights activists demanded her immediate acquittal and release, but also a solution to the issue of her emergency treatment.

Danilovich is known to have cooperated with several independent media outlets, including the INzhir media project and the "Crimean Process" initiative, which covers trials of politically motivated cases in Crimea.