PACE called for the release of Ukrainian human rights defender Maksym Butkevich from Russian captivity

The appeal is published on the Council of Europe website.

The participants in the declaration consider Butkevich's trial to be "another example of lawlessness by the occupiers" and stress that he is attributed crimes which he could not have committed as he was elsewhere.

Butkevich is known as a human rights activist and journalist. He has been involved in the anti-fascist movement and refugee aid for decades. He was the founder of Bez Kordoniv (Without Borders), an organisation that cared for asylum seekers in Ukraine.

However, the Russian invasion forced Butkevich to suspend his human rights activities, take up arms and join the Ukrainian army.

In June 2022, Maxim was taken prisoner. Kremlin propagandists tried to mould him into another "Nazi" and "punisher".

on March 10, 2023, a sham court of the so-called LNR sentenced Butkevich to thirteen years in a strict regime penal colony for fictitious actions that he was physically unable to commit because he was in a different place," reports the Sotsialny Rukh (Social Movement) organization.

During a recent visit to PACE, Social Movement activists recalled the case of Maksim Butkevich and called for solidarity with him and other prisoners of the Kremlin regime, while listing the crimes of the Russian imperialists.

Together with Danish Folketing deputy Søren Sønnergaard and the general secretary of the leftist faction Anna Kolotova, a written declaration was prepared, which was welcomed by delegate(s) from various countries representing all political groups in PACE," they said.

Last year, Socportal conducted an interview with Maksim Butkevich's parents.