You're reading: Ombudswoman: We will bring all Ukrainian political prisoners home

Since 2014, Ukraine has brought 185 political prisoners home in three exchanges with Russia and Russian-backed separatists. But many still remain in the custody of Russia and its proxies.

Now, President Volodymyr Zelensky is negotiating a new swap. On March 11, his office reported that chief of staff Andriy Yermak met with Russia’s new point person on Ukraine, Dmitry Kozak, in the Belarusian capital of Minsk to discuss a finalized lists of prisoners. Earlier in February, then-Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko expressed hope that the next swap would take place before the next Normandy Four summit, which is expected to be held in April.

“Everyone from the list will return. We don’t know the date yet, but we’re doing everything possible to make it happen,” Lyudmila Denisova, the parliament’s commissioner for human rights, said in an interview with the Kyiv Post on March 10.

“It is an extremely difficult process. We know who we are dealing with,” Denisova said.

She was referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who makes the ultimate decision on releasing Ukrainian prisoners.

This week, the Russian parliament’s upper chamber voted for a bill that allows Putin to run for a new presidential term in 2024. That means he will potentially remain in power until 2036.

Meanwhile, his Ukrainian counterpart doesn’t have much time. Political novice Zelensky came to power on a promise to stay for just one term and bring peace to the Donbas.

Since entering office last May, Zelensky has pushed to reboot the stalled Minsk agreements. This resulted in a bilateral withdrawal of troops at three front-line hotspots, Zelensky’s first meeting with Putin brokered by German and French leaders and two prisoner exchanges that brought home some prominent Ukrainian political prisoners.

However, Zelensky has faced criticism for including a witness in the 2014 downing of Malaysian Airlines flight 17 (MH17), which killed 298 people, and five former policemen accused of killing protesters during the EuroMaidan Revolution in the prisoner exchange. The revolution ended President Viktor Yanukovych’s rule in 2014.

Zelensky’s agreement to a Steinmeier formula — a plan that proposes holding elections in the Kremlin-occupied territories of the Donbas under Ukrainian law and granting the occupied region self-governing status — has also been protested and seen as capitulation.

Ombudswoman Denisova, who worked on preparations for both prisoner swaps in 2019, described Zelensky as a tough negotiator.

“He set a goal to return all Ukrainian people illegally held in Russia and the occupied territories. He didn’t retreat from a single one of his positions,” she said.

Denisova said that Zelensky has a different view on solving these issues than his predecessor, President Petro Poroshenko. “He doesn’t have clichés that restrain him, but that doesn’t mean ceding the country’s interests,” she said.

According to Denisova, Ukraine and Russia have exchanged lists of citizens they want to be released. She does not use the term “prisoner exchange,” and calls it a “mutual return” instead.

Russia’s list includes 183 people.

Zelensky recently said that Ukraine submitted a list of over 200 people to the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk, a negotiation platform for issues related to the war in the Donbas that includes representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Of those people, 115 are held in Russia and occupied Crimea. That includes 86 Crimean Tatars who are on trial or have been convicted for alleged membership in Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamic organization that Russia calls a terrorist group, or in a Ukrainian volunteer battalion.

Among them is ship captain Volodymyr Dudka, sentenced to 14 years for preparing “subversive activities on order of the Ukrainian intelligence”; journalist Nariman Medeminov, sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for “public calls for terrorism”; and human rights activist Emir Usein Kuku, sentenced to 12 years for “involvement with Hizb ut-Tahrir.”

Fifteen people from the list have served prison terms but have been barred by local courts from leaving the peninsula.

Two of them, Crimean Tatars Rustem Vaitov and Nuri Primov, spent five years in jail for alleged membership in Hizb ut-Tahrir. They deny the charges. They were released in February but can’t leave the peninsula for eight more years.

The negotiation process is complicated by a number of factors, particularly as Russia continues to arrest Ukrainians and Crimeans. On March 11, local security forces raided homes and arrested seven Crimean Tatars.

Denisova has called on the UN Human Rights Council to send a monitoring mission to the occupied peninsula and hopes for continuous international support for the remaining Ukrainian political prisoners.

Since the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, its residents have automatically been issued Russian passports, making them Russian rather than Ukrainian citizens in the eyes of the Russian legal system. But if the presidents can reach an agreement, this is not an obstacle, Denisova said.

Exactly who will be included on the final list and when they will return home is being kept secret.

Denisova says any information about the prisoner exchange must be approached carefully, as incorrect reports or public statements from anyone not involved in the negotiation can jeopardize results and cause unnecessary frustration for prisoners’ families.

That happened in late August, when disinformation about a long-awaited prisoner swap’s completion appeared in both Ukrainian and Russian media. It included false claims that prominent Ukrainian political prisoners and 24 sailors captured near Crimea were on their way to Kyiv a week before the actual swap took place.

As for those who returned from Russian prisons and captivity in occupied Donbas, Ukraine still lacks a law recognizing them as political prisoners and granting state support.

Currently, a commission at the Ministry for Veteran Affairs decides on financial aid to former political prisoners and families of Ukrainian citizens held in Russia and the occupied territories.