During the Crimea crisis, Ukrainian filmmaker, writer and Maidan activist Oleg Sentsov took part in distributing food to Ukrainian soldiers blockaded by Russian troops. He was arrested in Crimea in May 2014 and taken to Russia, where he was sentenced in 2015 to twenty years in prison on terrorism charges. In a short biographical piece, published in German translation in ‘Transit’ and republished here, Sentsov recalls his first exposure to official corruption during his schooldays. Sentsov has been on hunger strike since 14 May to campaign for the release of the approximately 70 Ukrainian political prisoners held on the territory of the Russian Federation.
