52 years ago – on January 12, 1972 – the Christmas carol of the “Sixtiers” (also Shistdesiatnyky) turned into a “general slaughter” of the Ukrainian intellectuals. At that time, the Soviet authorities arrested 19 well-known representatives of the national democratic movement of Ukraine at the same time, in total convicting 89 “Sixtiers” in 1972. It was in captivity, in the Soviet camps, that the Day of the Ukrainian Political Prisoner began to be marked in 1975 on the initiative of Viacheslav Chornovil – with hunger strikes and protests.

Today, the russian authorities are fully following the Soviet methods of fighting against dissidents. Over the past two decades, and especially during the brutal war unleashed by the Russian Federation, the Kremlin’s political prisoners are mostly not activists and cultural figures, as in the 1960s. The victims of the russian system are often ordinary people with ordinary backgrounds who have found the courage to feel Ukrainian and speak out about it during the occupation.

According to the government and human rights organizations, at least 180 Ukrainian citizens are currently being held in prisons in the Russian Federation and the temporarily occupied Crimea. Since the beginning of the full-scale armed invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, the so-called “prisoner exchanges” have been taking place regularly, but more than 90% of their participants are military personnel.

The most recent “exchange” that resulted in the release of political prisoners took place on September 7, 2019. On that day, 11 prisoners arrived at Kyiv Boryspil Airport on a flight from Moscow. After that, there were multiple agreements with Russia on “exchanges” and announcements that political prisoners and prisoners from Donbas would return home. We, in the Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners of the Kremlin, also participated in the formation of these lists, including Crimean prisoners. But none of this has happened – the russian side does not keep its promises without giving any explanation.

Since the beginning of the war, Ukraine has been focused on bringing home prisoners of war. Thanks to the work of our Coordination Headquarters, such exchanges take place regularly. In addition, the issue of the mechanism for returning home more than 20000 civilian hostages detained by the Russian Federation in the newly occupied territories is critical. The Russian Federation does not classify them into a separate category, but considers them combatants who resisted the “special military operation”.

As we know, according to the Geneva Conventions, civilians are not subject to exchange, and the Russian Federation must return them on its own. However, they should be returned under certain agreements between our countries, and Russia is reluctant to engage in dialogue.

We call on the government to promote among partner countries mechanisms to force Russia to unconditionally release Ukrainian political prisoners and civilian hostages.

‍

A bit more about the history of the Ukrainian Political Prisoner's Day: