10 Ukrainian civilians brought back from Russian captivity, including deputy chairman of Majlis of Crimean Tatar people

Ukrainian authorities managed to bring back 10 civilians from Russian captivity on 28 June. Among them is Nariman Dzhelyal, Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, who was captured in Crimea in 2021. [Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People is the single highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars in the period between sessions of the Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar People – ed.]

Source: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in social media

Quote: "We managed to bring back 10 more of our people from Russian captivity. Despite all the difficulties.

Nariman Dzhelyal, Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, was captured in Crimea in 2021. Olena Pekh and Valerii Matiushenko are civilians who have been in captivity since 2017-2018. Bohdan Heleta and Ivan Levytskyi are priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, captured in Berdiansk for their resistance to the occupiers. Five other civilians were captured in Belarus and deprived of their liberty: Mykola Shvets, Nataliia Zakharenko, Pavlo Kupriienko, Liudmyla Honcharenko and Kateryna Briukhanova. They have all been released and are now back home in Ukraine."

Updated: The Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, also announced the news of their release and published a photo.

The Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War reported that this swap completed the 53rd exchange, which began on 25 June with the release of 90 defenders. 

They clarified that among those released were two priests of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Ivan Levytskyi and Bohdan Heleta, who were detained by the Russian occupation authorities in Berdiansk in November 2022.

Olena Pekh, an art historian and researcher at the Horlivka Art Museum, who has been detained by the occupiers since 2018, is also coming home. Another political prisoner, Valerii Matiushenko, was detained by the occupiers in Donetsk Oblast in July 2017 and later illegally imprisoned for up to 10 years.

Quote from the Coordination Centre: "Ukraine also managed to bring back several civilians illegally detained and convicted in Belarus. Among those released is Mykola Shvets, whom the Belarusian authorities accused of blowing up a Russian A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft at the airfield in Machulishchi.

The release of the civilian Ukrainians was carried out with the mediation of the Holy See."

Background:

• On 23 August 2021, on the Day of the Ukrainian Flag, a gas pipeline was damaged in the village of Perevalne that lies between Simferopol and Yalta (Crimea). A criminal case was opened in Russia under Article 281.1 of the Russian Criminal Code (sabotage), which provides for imprisonment for a term of 10 to 15 years.
• On 3-4 September, five Crimean Tatars were detained in Crimea: Nariman Dzhelyal, Aziz Akhtemov, Asan Akhtemov, Shevket Useinov and Eldar Odamanov. Nariman Dzhelial was kept handcuffed and with a bag over his head for the whole day.
• In October it was reported that Dzhelyal was being transferred to Minusinsk in Eastern Siberia. Cousins Asan and Aziz Akhtemov were also taken from Crimea.
• These three Crimeans were sentenced by the Russians last year on falsified terrorism charges – Dzhelial to 17 years, Asan Akhtemov to 15 years, and Aziz Akhtemov to 13 years in prison.

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