Zelenskyy Gives UN Chief List Of Ukrainians Detained In Russia, Donbas

Zelenskyy Gives UN Chief List of Ukrainians Detained in Russia, Donbas

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has handed over to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres a list of more than 400 Ukrainians held in the country's breakaway Donbas region and Russia, asking for assistance in their release, the Ukrainian Presidency said on Wednesday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd September, 2021) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has handed over to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres a list of more than 400 Ukrainians held in the country's breakaway Donbas region and Russia, asking for assistance in their release, the Ukrainian Presidency said on Wednesday.

Zelenskyy is on his second working visit to the United States in one month. He met with Guterres on the sidelines of the high week of the 76th UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

"The President handed over to the UN Secretary-General a list of almost 450 Ukrainians held in the temporarily occupied territories and Russia. He asked Antonio Guterres to assist in the release of prisoners. The head of state thanked the interlocutor for supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and familiarized him with the current security situation in Donbas," Zelenskyy's office said.

The Ukrainian president also briefed Guterres on the results of the Crimean Platform summit, held in Kiev on August 23. Zelenslyy's initiative gathered over 40 countries and international organizations to discuss the return of Ukraine's sovereignty over Crimea, which voted to become part of Russia in 2014.

Ukraine counts on full support from the UN regarding the initiative, Zelenskyy said.

On September 1, Zelenskyy asked his US counterpart, Joe Biden, for assistance in returning some 450 Ukrainian detainees held in Donbas and Crimea.

Crimea rejoined Russia in 2014 after over 96% of residents voted in support in referendum. Most Western countries and Kiev did not recognize the referendum's result.

The conflict in Donbas erupted the same year when the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk republics proclaimed their independence from Ukraine after what they regarded as a coup in Kiev. In response, the new Ukrainian leadership launched a military offensive against the region in a bid to return them under central power in Kiev.