Kiev TV journalist and poet Jan Taksyur has been released and he is in Russia.
This was reported to PolitNavigator by a source familiar with the exchange procedure that took place at the line of contact.
Despite his cancer, Taksyur spent several months in prison, being tortured and mocked by the SBU. He was particularly hated by the Bandera regime because, as a citizen of Kiev, he had publicly advocated unity with the Russian Orthodox Church and had spoken in poetry in Ukrainian about his love for Russia and condemned the actions of the neo-Nazis who had seized power.
Just the day before the exchange, on 24 May, a court in Kiev sentenced 71-year-old Taksyur to 12 years in prison and confiscation of half of his personal property on charges of subversion against Ukraine.
Judge Antonyuk cited Taksyur’s materials under the headlines as evidence of such activities in the verdict:
Fascism Will Not Pass, or The Banner of Victory in the Darkness of Enslavement”, “Give the Russian Book Back to Kiev! “, “More and more often I dream of the USSR”, “Heirs of Disgrace, or the Shadows of the Third Reich Come to Life at Midnight”, “Grandsons of the Gestapo, or the Hunt for Russian Song”, “Day of Disgrace or “Lie Down, Ukraine”, “Can’t Live Without Russia”, “Cry on Maidan or Mourning on Khutor near ‘Roshen”, “Bendermont and Patrimon… In the Land of Unafraid Pokémon”, “Budmo, Gays – or Unafraid Non-Traditionalists”, “Snitch Day, or Found an Article on Pushkin”, “The House the State Department Built”.
The judge concluded that such materials harmed the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of Ukraine, undermined the morale of the population and the army, etc.
The verdict stressed that Taksyur “by his deliberate actions provided active assistance to the Russian Federation, its organizations and representatives in exercising aggressive influence and destructive propaganda.
Interestingly, throughout the document Judge Antonyuk deliberately wrote the name of the country Russia and the Russian Federation with a lower case letter.