Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has welcomed the return of Ukrainian prisoners from Russia, including Crimean Tatar leader Nariman Dzhelyal.
“Ten civilians, plus 90 soldiers were released this week,” Zelensky said in a video message. This brought the total to 3,310 prisoners released from Russian prisons to Ukraine, he said.
“We must find and send back to Ukraine all our people, all in prison or deported – adults and children, soldiers and civilians,” he said.
Dzhelyal was among 10 citizens who returned on Friday. Zelensky held brief talks with the Tatar leader on Saturday. They last met in 2021.
Shortly after that meeting and before the February 2022 Russian invasion, Dzhelyal was arrested in Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. He was subsequently sentenced to 17 years in prison after being found guilty of blowing up a gas pipeline.
Among the freed were two priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
No information has been released on whether the Ukrainians released Russian prisoners in return.
The latest prisoner exchange between Kiev and Moscow a few days ago involved a metropolitan of the pro-Russian Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who received an award from Patriarch Kirill upon his arrival in Moscow.
