As of August last year, 175 Ukrainian citizens were held in Russian prisons. This figure was announced by the head of the presidential office, Andriy Yermak, at the International Platform for the Release of Civilians Illegally Detained by the Russian Federation, held in Kyiv on the tenth anniversary of the annexation of Crimea.
"As of August 2023, 175 Ukrainian citizens are being held in Russian prisons. 117 of them are Crimeans. What does this figure indicate? About the policy of oppression of the people who have no other homeland. It is an attempt to turn this freedom-loving people into voiceless slaves again... Despite the fact that the Russian history of Crimea is a chronicle of genocide. And all this is today's reality," Yermak said.
He noted that as a result of the illegal occupation of the peninsula, representatives of the Crimean Tatar people, such as Nariman Dzhelal, Emir-Usein Kuku, Enver Bekirov, Muslim Aliyev, who refused to put up with the Russians, tried to tell the truth and ended up in prison, suffered.
Yermak added that Ukraine knows the names of each of the Crimean Tatars held in Russian captivity, and our state will not stop until they are all released.