Seventeen Ukrainians who were persecuted, with most tortured and imprisoned, in Russia; occupied Crimea or Donbas have launched a platform aimed at ensuring that the release of all Ukrainian political prisoners and hostages is firmly on the agenda, both in Ukraine and abroad. The initiators, who include filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and the Deputy Head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, Akhtem Chiygoz, know all too well that oblivion helps only Russia. It is Moscow who must be pressured to release the 115 political prisoners it is now holding in occupied Crimea or Russia, and who will determine whether the 250 (at least) Ukrainian POWs and civilian hostages held in the Russian-controlled Donbas ‘republics’ are free. While the pandemic has certainly made it harder anywhere in the world to campaign for the Kremlin’s Ukrainian hostages, it is also worryingly true that a lot of international campaigning ended in 2019, with the release of Sentsov and several other prominent figures. This is despite Russia having immediately embarked on new arrests and without any serious dent in the number of victims of repression.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
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Halya Coynash: Kremlin hostages put the release of prisoners on the agenda
Ukrainian activist Oleksandr Kolchenko (L) and Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov (R) holding their first press conference on Sept. 10, 2019, after release from Russian custody.
