The Embassy of Ukraine in Latvia, in response to an appeal to resolve the issue of assistance to Andriy Zakhtei in crossing the Russian-Latvian state border, informed his lawyer that if he arrives on the territory of the Republic of Latvia, the embassy is ready, within its competence, to help protect his legal rights and interests.
At the same time, the Embassy noted that the presence of an internal passport of a citizen of Ukraine without a timely pasted photo (45 years old) will not be an obstacle for Zakhtei to enter the territory of Latvia.
At the same time, the Border Guard Service of the Republic of Latvia, in its letter to the Embassy of Ukraine, noted that Latvia has legislation on supporting the civilian population of Ukraine, which suffers from Russian aggression, and the situation of Andriy Zakhtei , if he crosses the border with Latvia, will be assessed individually, taking into account available he has documents and other circumstances.
We remind you that Andriy Zakhtei , along with several other citizens of Ukraine, was illegally detained in Crimea near the village of Suvorove, Krasnoperekopsk district, on the night of August 6-7, 2016. He was accused of allegedly sabotage activities in favor of Ukraine and on February 16, 2018 he was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison, which he served in an institution in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Therefore, for the entire time he was in the colony, the Ukrainian consul could not reach him, and only Metropolitan of Simferopol and Crimean of the OCU Klyment was able to visit him several times.
Andriy Zakhtei was recognized as a political prisoner in two resolutions of the European Parliament, which demanded from the Russian authorities the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners imprisoned in the occupied Crimea and on the territory of Russia – dated October 5, 2017 and June 14, 2018.
On February 10, 2023, immediately after the end of serving his illegal sentence, Zakhtei was transported under escort to the detention center Don of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (village of Sinyavskoye, Neklinovsky district, Rostov region of the Russian Federation), where he is currently located by decision of the Neklinovsky district court of the Rostov region region dated February 15, 2023.
According to available information, on May 12, 2023, a meeting of the Neklinovsky District Court of the Rostov Region should be held, at which the issue of giving Zakhtei the opportunity to voluntarily leave the territory of the Russian Federation will be considered.
Zakhtei’s lawyers did their best to comply with the demands of the Russians for his release from detention center Don and exit from the territory of Russia. Despite the fact that the State Migration Service of Ukraine on March 8, 2023 refused to issue Zakhtei a certificate of return to Ukraine, it was possible to resolve the issue of identifying and confirming Zakhtei’s Ukrainian citizenship without prejudice to the national interests of Ukraine. The last thing the Russians demanded was confirmation from a third country that it did not object to the crossing of the state border by Ukrainian citizen Andriy Zakhtei . Finally, today, with the assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, we managed to receive such confirmation from the Republic of Latvia!
The Crimean Tatar Resource Center, which systematically and constantly deals with issues related to the fate of Ukrainian political prisoners, hopes that in the near future Andriy will be able to hug his family and finally communicate with his daughter!