Today, Permanent Representative Tamila Tasheva met with a group of international journalists participating in a press tour to Ukraine from September 22 to 29, 2024, implemented by the Ukraine Crisis Media Center in cooperation with the Open Society Foundation with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation. Among the participants were Hane Zbiss (Daraj Media, Tunisia), Sudhakar Reddy Udumula (The Times of India, India), Camilo Suazo (BioBioChile/Zona Militar, Chile), Rosemary Tollo (The East African/Journalists for Justice, Kenya), Fana Cissé (PressAfrik, Senegal), Sisanda Msolekwa (The Sunday Times, South Africa), Anne and Laurent Champ-Massard (El Independiente/Revista, Mexico). The meeting was also joined by the recently released Crimean Tatar Leniie Umerova, whom the occupiers illegally imprisoned in December 2022.

Tamila Tasheva stressed that, unlike the periodic exchanges of prisoners of war, Russia consistently refuses to exchange civilians and political prisoners illegally arrested in the occupied territories. She emphasized that after the last large exchange in 2019, when many political prisoners were released, including Oleh Sentsov, there have been almost no releases of civilians.

“Abductions, enforced disappearances, illegal detention in basements. This is the policy with which Russia comes to other countries. It happened in Crimea, and it is happening now in the territories that were occupied after a large-scale invasion… And they have always done this throughout their history,” the Permanent Representative emphasized.

Leniie Umerova shared her story of illegal imprisonment and recent release, emphasizing the importance of supporting all political prisoners who continue to be held behind bars due to the repression of the occupation authorities. She urged journalists and the public to more actively cover these stories, write letters of support, and contribute to international pressure on the aggressor to release all Ukrainian citizens.

“The most important thing for me after my release was the opportunity to finally feel at home, to hear my brother’s voice,” emphasized Leniie.

Finally, Tamila Tasheva expressed her sincere gratitude to the journalists for coming to Ukraine, emphasizing the importance of a personal visit to see firsthand the realities of Russian aggression and its impact on the country. She stressed that objective coverage of events is essential for raising international awareness of the situation in Ukraine, especially in the context of the occupation of Crimea and Russia’s human rights violations.