Early life and film career Sentsov was born on 13 July 1976 in
Simferopol,
Crimean Oblast,
Ukrainian SSR. He is an
ethnic Russian. From 1993 to 1998, he was an economics student in
Kyiv. His first two
short movies were
A Perfect Day for Bananafish (2008) and
The Horn of a Bull (2009). but production was postponed due to his participation in the
AutoMaidan and
Euromaidan protest movements. With Gennady Afanasyev, Alexei Chirniy, and
Alexander Kolchenko, the Federal Security Service accused the four Ukrainians of being "part of a terrorist community, to carry out explosions with home-made devices on
May 9, 2014 near the Eternal Flame memorial and Lenin monument in Simferopol and to set fire to the offices of the Russian Community of Crimea public organization and the
United Russia party branch in Simferopol on April 14 and April 18, 2014". On 7 July 2014, Sentsov's arrest was extended to 11 October. Ukrainian authorities were banned by their Russian counterparts from contacting or helping Sentsov. According to Sentsov, he was deprived of his
Ukrainian citizenship. The main witness for the prosecution, Afanasyev, retracted his testimony in court on 31 July, saying it was given under duress. According to the Afanasyev's lawyer, Afanasyev was tortured, including with
electric current. The other main witness, Oleksiy Chirnyi, refused to testify in court. A Russian court in
Rostov-on-Don sentenced Sentsov to 20 years in prison on 25 August.
Detention Sentsov initially served his sentence in the
Russian federal subject Sakha Republic. In October 2016, Russia refused to extradite Sentsov to Ukraine, claiming that he was a
Russian citizen. in the
Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. He declined visits by his family after observing that once the visitors leave other prisoners "fall into terrible deep depression". After 145 days of the hunger strike,
Reactions According to the Ombudsperson of Ukraine
Valeriya Lutkovska, the decision of the Rostov court toward Ukrainians Sentsov and
Oleksandr Kolchenko constituted discrimination based on national origin.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry, in a statement on its website, called the trial "a judicial farce". On 26 June 2014, Russia's
Presidential Council for Human Rights appealed to Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin to review the circumstances surrounding the arrests of Sentsov and fellow activist
Oleksandr Kolchenko. The
European Union and the
United States condemned Sentsov's detention and called for his release. The European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Federica Mogherini stated that "the EU considers the case to be in breach of international law and elementary standards of justice". Western governments,
Amnesty International, and European Film Academy deputy chairman Mike Downey described the proceedings as a
show trial. The
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe recognized Sentsov as a
political prisoner. The United States called the sentencing a "miscarriage of justice", stating that "Mr. Sentsov and Mr. Kolchenko were targeted by authorities because of their opposition to Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea". Saying that Sentsov and Kolchenko were "taken hostage on Ukrainian territory", it called upon the Russian Federation to "implement the commitments it made in signing the Minsk agreements by immediately releasing Sentsov,
Kolchenko,
Savchenko, and all other remaining hostages". The German government's special envoy for human rights and humanitarian affairs said in a statement that he was "shaken" by the severity of the sentences and urged Russia to comply with
Council of Europe norms for the humane treatment of prisoners. Iranian film director
Mohsen Makhmalbaf dedicated his acceptance of the 2015
Robert Bresson Prize at the
Venice Film Festival to Sentsov, calling the conviction a "major injustice" and the sentence "a move to intimidate all Russian society, especially the intellectuals and artists". The
European Parliament supported a resolution calling for the immediate release of Sentsov and other Ukrainian political prisoners. Before the vote, all major political groups in the European Parliament, when discussing the human rights situation in Russia, called for the release of Sentsov and 158 other political prisoners held in the country. The participants in the debate stressed the need to continue sanctions pressure on the Kremlin, and European leaders and diplomats were urged not to attend the World Cup, which opened 14 June in Russia. The
Sejm of Poland adopted a resolution on 15 June 2018 demanding the release of Ukrainians imprisoned in Russia for political reasons. In the resolution deputies demanded, in particular, the release of Sentsov,
Kolchenko, and
Sushchenko. Sentsov was granted the title of
honorary citizen of Paris on 24 September 2018. Sentsov was awarded the
European Parliament’s
Sakharov Prize on 25 October 2018, in a move described by
The Guardian as an
EU rebuke to Russian President
Vladimir Putin. On 7 September 2019, in a prisoner swap with Ukraine, Russia released Sentsov. On that same day he returned to Kyiv, where he and other returning prisoners were welcomed by
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and where Sentsov reunited with his family. French, and German leaders and leaders of international organizations such as
NATO,
OSCE, and the
European Parliament.
Life and career after release Sentsov's film
Nomera (The Numbers) was shown at the
70th Berlin International Film Festival in 2020. The film was produced while Sentsov was still in prison. During this time he corresponded with his co-director Seitablayev.
Fighting in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine During the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sentsov joined the
Territorial Defense Forces of
Kyiv, which is a part of the
Armed Forces of Ukraine. He called on the international film community to boycott Russian cinema. Sentsov took part in the
Battle of Kyiv, using an
NLAW to destroy
Russian tanks.
Balakliia and
Kupiansk. As of July 2023, he is an infantry second lieutenant (given this rank in June 2023 fighting on the
Zaporizhzhia front during the
2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive, where he was lightly wounded during offensive operations. As a commander of an assault company (of the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade) Sentsov took part in the
August 2024 Kursk Oblast incursion. In 2025, he was promoted to become a battalion commander in the
47th Mechanized Brigade. ==Works==