News
21.11.2019
The Victor Pinchuk Foundation has bought apartments for five Ukrainian political prisoners of the Kremlin
The Victor Pinchuk Foundation has bought apartments in Kyiv for five freed Ukrainian political prisoners of the Kremlin - Oleg Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Volodymyr Balukh, Artur Panov and Oleksiy Syzonovych – who returned to Ukraine in September 2019 as part of the 35-for-35 prisoner swap. Before their detention, they lived in occupied territories: Crimea and Luhansk Region.
The Victor Pinchuk Foundation has bought ready-for-living, refurbished apartments in Kyiv houses built after 2004, in which they and their families could move immediately. The new owners of the apartments chose among several options in the districts of Kyiv they indicated as priority ones.
The purchase of the apartments is yet another step taken by businessman and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk towards implementing an initiative of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which he supported when on 2 October 2019, he bought apartments in Odesa for 24 Ukrainian sailors who were prisoners of war.
Commenting on this event, Victor Pinchuk said: "They are not only heroes, they are ordinary people, each of them having his home in Ukraine. However, they cannot return there yet. Their homes were stolen from them, similarly a part of Donbas and Crimea were stolen from all of us. However, I think that the time will come when every citizen of Ukraine will feel like home anywhere in our country including Crimea and Donbass."
"Even the heroes deserve simple human happiness because when they came back, they could not return to their homes," Olena Pinchuk, founder of the Elena Pinchuk Foundation, added. "We are happy that our boys will be able to celebrate the New Year not only at home but in their own home, which they now have. This is the least we can do to show them how grateful we are that they have remained faithful to themselves and Ukraine."
