The Russian Justice Ministry has again declined the Ukrainian Justice Ministry's request for the extradition of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov and his accomplice Oleksandr Kolchenko, who were given lengthy prison sentences in Russia, Kyiv said.

"Russia has refused to extradite Sentsov and Kolchenko without any grounds. It considers them its citizens," Serhiy Petukhov, deputy justice minister for European integration, said on Facebook.

He said Ukraine considers Sentsov and Kolchenko its citizens and will seek their return through international organizations that have influence on Russia, and also within the framework of the lawsuits filed with the European Court of Human Rights.

Petukhov has attached a copy of the Russian Justice Ministry's response to his report.

According to earlier reports, the Northern Caucasus District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, in August 2015 sentenced Sentsov, who was detained in Crimea in 2014, to 20 years in a high-security penal colony on charges of creating a terrorist community on the peninsula. Kolchenko was sentenced to ten years in prison in the same case.

In early May 2016, the convicts filled out documents for their extradition to Ukraine to serve their terms there.

On June 1, the Russian Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal against the sentence.

On October 21, 2016, Petukhov said Russia had refused to extradite Sentsov and Kolchenko to their home country to serve their terms there.