President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy intends to demand the return of Ukrainian political prisoners held in the Russian Federation and the occupied Crimea after the end of the COVID-19 epidemic.
"We are now talking to the Russian Federation about the possible exchange after (the epidemic - ed.) COVID-19, about the return of our political prisoners held in Russia or in Crimean prisons," the President said during a press conference in Kyiv.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that as a result of three stages of the release of detainees, Ukraine had returned more than 130 citizens. These include political prisoners and sailors captured in the Kerch Strait. Thus, 76 people returned after the meeting of the leaders of the Normandy format, which took place in December 2019 in Paris.
The President noted that a regular meeting in the Normandy format had not taken place due to coronavirus.
"But we managed to lean on and bring home 20 people more," the President stressed.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy also added that new areas of disengagement of forces and assets in Donbas had not been coordinated yet.
The President reminded that Ukraine had reset its representation in the Trilateral Contact Group to intensify the negotiation process.
"We added status to the Minsk process, and everyone sees it. We managed to show that the people who are representatives of ORDLO, who have been present at the meetings of the Minsk group for six years, that some of them have Russian passports and that they cannot be present there. Representatives of the temporarily occupied territories can be present there, but they must all be citizens of Ukraine," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
