Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Friday said he was ending his three-week-long hunger strike, reported AFP. He also thanked his supporters.

Taking to Instagram, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s critic wrote, “Taking into account the progress and all the circumstances, I am beginning to go off my hunger strike.”

Also read: Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny shifted to prison hospital amid growing health concerns

Navalny had launched the hunger strike to demand medical treatment behind bars.

The statement that he would end the hunger strike came a day after his personal doctors said he had received treatment at a civilian hospital and urged him to put a stop to his protest.

Navalny’s protest in prison had raised the stakes in a standoff between President Vladimir Putin and Western leaders, who said Russia would face repercussions if the Kremlin’s most outspoken opponent died in detention.

The 44-year-old trained lawyer announced the hunger strike in his penal colony on March 31, demanding to see an independent doctor for pain in his back and numbness in his arms and legs.

Also read: Alexei Navalny’s life in danger, needs to be evacuated: UN Rights Experts

He was thrown behind bars in February for more than two years on old embezzlement charges, just weeks after he returned to Moscow from Germany where he had been recuperating from a poisoning attack that nearly left him dead.

He blames Russian authorities for the attack with nerve agent Novichok — a claim the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.