Kuleba slams Russia for going after innocent people over Crimea Platform disruption failure

“There can be no other interpretations than to acknowledge that these raids and arrests are part of Russia’s revenge for Ukraine’s successful holding of the Crimea Platform summit….[T]hey are forcing innocent Crimean Tatars to pay the price, throwing them behind bars and bringing grief to their families,” said [Foreign Minister Dmytro] Kuleba.

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He stressed…that Ukraine would work with partners to ensure that all political prisoners held by Russia be released.

In this context, Kuleba recalled that during his visit to Washington, he handed to the U.S. State Department a full list of Ukrainian prisoners held in the occupied Donbas, occupied Crimea, and Russia, while during a summit of presidents of Ukraine and the U.S., Volodymyr Zelensky also raised the issue.

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“I have one appeal to the Russians: ‘Stop showing your pettiness. If you can’t stop the government of Ukraine from fighting for Crimea and liberating the peninsula, you shouldn’t attack innocent people….”

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Chubarov calls on Western leaders to snub Putin

Chairman of the Crimean Tatars’ Mejlis, Refat Chubarov, has called on Western powers to refrain from pursuing dialog or meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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He noted that the Mejlis was grateful to the European Union, the U.S., Britain, Turkey, and other countries, which throughout the eight years of occupation of the peninsula “have been expressing serious concern about the situation in the occupied Crimea and the fate of our compatriots.”