Sevastopol swimmer, a fan of the UPA, announced the threat of arrest and left Crimea
Oleg Sofyanik, a swimmer from Sevastopol, known for participating in multi-kilometer marathons and swims in the cold sea, announced the threat of arrest for sympathizing with Ukraine.
Ukrainian sports website “Tribuna” reports, that yesterday in Sevastopol, Russian special service officers came to the house where Sofyanik lives to interrogate the swimmer in the case of blogger Yuri Ilchenko, who was arrested in Simferopol several days ago on charges of extremism.
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Sofyanik was in Ukraine at that time, learned about the visit of the security forces from his neighbors, after which he decided not to return to Crimea.
“I plan to fight the Putin regime and was already returning to Crimea, but at the last moment I changed my mind when I heard this,” the publication quotes the athlete.
In 2011, Sofyanik completed a marathon swim across the South China Sea, covering about 9 kilometers in 350 days.
Sofyanik claimed that he dedicated his swim to all dissidents who fought against the communist regime of the USSR. Including the fighters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, thanks to whom, according to Sofyanik, Ukraine achieved independence.
“I’m not a Ukrainian nationalist, but these people fought against the criminal communist regime, and now they are unfairly forgotten by the state,” Sofyanik said.
Such views did not prevent him from making a 2009-kilometer swim in Crimea in 90 - in honor of the arrival of Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill in Sevastopol. Then Oleg Sofyanik finished at the Vladimir Cathedral in Chersonesos, on the day of the arrival of the Russian Patriarch.
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