The Main Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug denied the information that Oleg Sentsov left the colony. He is in prison and continues his hunger strike, the department’s press service told Interfax. “The information that the convicted Sentsov allegedly left the correctional colony is not true,” the agency’s interlocutor said.

Russian journalist Victoria Ivleva reported on Sunday night that a plane with Sentsov on board took off from Salekhard, citing a source. “Oleg seems to be saved! At 23.00 the plane with him took off from Salekhard. Hopefully the next stop is Kyiv. All!" — she wrote on Facebook. When confirmation of the information did not appear several hours later, Ivleva admitted that her source might have been misinformed.

The director's sister Natalya Kaplan said that she could not but confirm or refute this information. “At the moment, I can neither confirm nor deny the information about Oleg’s departure from Labytnangi,” said . her message on social networks

In August 2015, Sentsov was sentenced in Russia to 20 years in a maximum security colony. The court found him guilty of preparing terrorist attacks in Crimea and creating a terrorist group. According to investigators, members of the group created by Sentsov committed two terrorist attacks in Simferopol in the spring of 2014: they set fire to the offices of the public organization “Russian Community of Crimea” and the regional branch of “United Russia”. In addition, according to the case materials, they were preparing to blow up a monument to Lenin.

Sentsov did not admit guilt. On May 14, he went on a hunger strike demanding the release of all Ukrainians illegally detained in Russia, and continues it to this day.

This week, the director’s sister and his lawyer Dmitry Dinze reported a deterioration in Sentsov’s health. According to them, he hardly gets up and has lost a lot of weight.

On Saturday, the Federal Penitentiary Service denied this information, saying that Sentsov’s condition is assessed as satisfactory, and there is no deficiency in body weight. He refused hospitalization in a civil hospital in writing, the Federal Penitentiary Service added, and there were no indications for emergency hospitalization.

The FSIN denied information that Sentsov left the colony