Protests in Ukraine. Photo: Wiki Commons.

JNS.org – Michael Rojkov, a Ukraine native and lone soldier (without parents living in Israel) of the Israel Defense Forces who just completed his service in the IDF’s Golani Brigade, is trying to free his mother from a Ukrainian jail.

According to Rojkov, his mother, Yana Popsko, was imprisoned for helping injured protestors. “On a Thursday about two weeks ago, the government’s military forces came into her home, turned the place upside down and arrested her,” Rojkov said. “Since then, she has been in jail.”

He added that his mother is “a doctor by training and shehelped people who were injured in the protests and people who needed to be taken to the hospital. Politics does not interest her, and she does not belong to any side.”

Rojkov said his mother was brought before a judge on Monday, but “they did not let her speak and they found her guilty of assisting terrorists. There were many violent incidents, and anyone who dared to help people was taken to jail.”

Rojkov immigrated to Israel in 2006, returned to Ukraine shortly thereafter, and then came to Israel again about two years ago to serve in the IDF. “My mother and sister are still in Odessa,” he said. Upon turning to the Ukrainian Consulate in Israel, Rojkov said he was not helped. His friends are now trying to secure help for his mother from Chabad-Lubavitch.

“I am approaching everyone who can help, the [Israeli] Foreign Ministry, the prime minister,” he said. “Nobody wants their mother to be in jail. She is wrongly imprisoned.”