The release of Crimean Tatar activists jailed in Russia will be the next stage of the Ukrainian-Russian prisoner exchange, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“I think this will be the second stage. We will be working in the second stage now. We will bring all our people back from there. Get them released, because many our people are in Crimea,” Zelensky told his interviewer from Crimea.Realities (a Radio Svoboda project), when asked about prospects of a release of Crimean Tatars from Russian jails.
The president hopes this will happen as soon as possible.
“We are not talking about a year or two or three. We want to do this very quickly. We are dreaming about it and we are working [on it],” he said.
On Sept. 7, Russia and Ukraine exchanged some of their prisoners. A plane with 35 Ukrainians on board landed at Boryspil Airport in Kyiv. Among them was Edem Bekirov, a Crimean Tatar activist.
