Ukraine's Foreign Ministry demands Russia free Ukrainian political prisoners Volodymr Balukh and Oleh Sentsov, who are continuing their hunger strike, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Mariana Betsa has said.

"142… 86… Human lives are behind these numbers [number of days, respectively, both men have been on hunger strike]. Balukh continues his hunger strike, along with Sentsov. We demand Russia release them," Betsa said on her Twitter page on Tuesday.

As earlier reported, Ukrainian farmer Balukh was arrested on December 8, 2016, in his house in the village of Serebrianka of Rozdolne district of Crimea, which is temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. Russian authorities charged him with possession of ammunition.

Crimea's Rozdolne District Court sentenced Balukh to three years and seven months of imprisonment in a low-security penal colony and to a fine of 10,000 Russian rubles. Balukh's defense team said the case was fabricated, and his verdict would be appealed in courts of higher instances.

Balukh started his hunger strike on March 14, 2018, over the fabricated case against him.

In August 2015, the North Caucasus District Military Court in Russia's Rostov-on-Don sentenced Sentsov, who was detained in Crimea in 2014, to 20 years in a high-security penitentiary. He was accused of creating a terrorist group in Crimea.

Sentsov went on a hunger strike on May 14 and demanded that all Ukrainian citizens held in Russia be set free.

He is serving time in a high-security penitentiary known as the Polar Bear in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region.