Zelensky Called the Condition for the Restoration of Dialogue between Ukraine and Russia

The release by Russia of Ukrainian sailors arrested after the incident at the entrance to the Kerch Strait in autumn 2018 can serve as an important step to start a dialogue between the countries, stated the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in the course of the trip through the city at the wheel of his car. The corresponding video is published on the personal channel “Ze! President” on YouTube. “Let’s start with the (release of) sailors. I think this is a normal step to return to dialogue and a real powerful step to stop the war,” Zelensky said. According to him, the format of the exchange of prisoners according to the formula “all for all” is complicated due to the fact that the lists of the two sides do not coincide. “The list of our “all” who are in the temporarily occupied territories does not coincide with the list of those who control these territories,” the Ukrainian President said. Earlier, Deputy foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, commenting on the possibility of exchange of Ukrainian sailors, said that the Russian side “is thinking about it.” Besides, the Commissioner for human rights in Russia Tatyana Moskalkova following the meeting with the Ukrainian colleague confirmed the fact of negotiations concerning the detained citizens. She noted that there are 27 Russians in Ukraine in places of imprisonment, 23 more people are under the written pledge not to leave country. Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the problem of detainees in their first telephone conversation on July 11. The Ukrainian President said that first of all he asked about Ukrainian sailors. Russian border guards detained three ships of the Ukrainian Navy — artillery boats “Berdyansk” and “Nikopol”, as well as a regular tug “Yana Kapu” — in November 2018. According to the Russian side, Ukrainian sailors entered the territorial waters of Russia and did not respond to warnings. The sailors were arrested, they are now in a Moscow jail. Ukrainian authorities claim that Russia was warned about the maneuvers. Kyiv pursues Moscow’s actions as aggression. The Russian side considers the incident a provocation. In May this year, the Hague Tribunal ordered Russia to release the arrested sailors. RBC