Inmates in Simferopol prisons may be partially transferred to Ukraine

Ombudsperson of Ukraine Valeria Lutkovska and Ombudsperson of Russia Tatiana Moskalkova will conclude an agreement on transfer of a number of prisoners from the occupied Simferopol to the mainland Ukraine.

As the Ukrayinska Pravda Ukrainian online newspaper reports with reference to Interfax news agency, Moskalkova said this to reporters in Minsk on Tuesday.

“We agreed to conclude an agreement on transfer of these people. We discussed the mechanisms for appealing to the relevant authorities,” Moskalkova said.

According to her, the parties checked the lists of inmates who stay in the territory of Simferopol to comply with their will to transfer them closer to the families, to the territory controlled by Ukraine.

In turn, Lutkovska said that “there is a problem with those individuals who want to be moved to the territory controlled by Ukraine.”

“We managed to agree on a mechanism for doing this,” the Ombudsperson said.

According to her, the transfer of 18 people is being discussed now.

“However, it is not an exhaustive list,” Lutkovska added, noting that the parties expect to continue to work on solving these problems.

In May, Ukrainian Ombudsperson Lutkovska reported that Russia had rejected all offers of transfer Ukrainian inmates, who had been imprisoned at the moment of annexation of Crimea.