For the release of more than a hundred Ukrainian political prisoners detained in the occupied Crimea, exchange lists have already been formed, but the process has been blocked by the Russian Federation. Negotiations directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin are needed to advance this issue. This was stated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in an interview with Ukrainian journalists from Crimea.
Kyiv. Ukraine. Ukraine Gate – August 19, 2021 – Ukraine News
Thus, Zelensky noted that Russia connects the issue of political prisoners from Crimea with the occupation of the peninsula, which it does not recognize.
“For them, they are not political prisoners … We can talk about the exchange, and we talk, and we prepared lists. But they separate the lists of those who are in ORDLO and the lists of our boys and girls who are in the Crimea or in Russia, ”the President was quoted as saying by the OP.
“Today, apart from direct talks with the President of Russia on Crimean prisoners, I see no other way out,” he said, adding that during all his meetings with world leaders he always raises the issue of Crimean prisoners.
According to Zelensky, Putin today “can safely return our prisoners to us, even if he does not believe that they are political prisoners.”
Ukraine, in turn, is ready for exchanges and any steps to bring back its citizens, Zelensky said.
According to Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova, as of early March, 268 Ukrainian citizens were illegally detained in the temporarily occupied part of Donbas, and 114 Ukrainian citizens were illegally detained in places of detention in the Russian Federation and the temporarily occupied Crimea. Most of them, namely 78, is of Crimean Tatar nationality.
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Source: Ukrgate
