That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Thursday, December 28, 2017. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage. Thanks for reading and take care.
After Prisoner Swap, Poroshenko Seeks Return Of Ukrainians Held By Russia
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he has ordered his government to "immediately" resume talks with Moscow on the release of Ukrainian citizens from Russian custody following a prisoner swap between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists.
Visiting the Odesa region on December 28, Poroshenko said Kyiv "will do everything we can" to return all Ukrainians held in Russia or "as hostages in occupied territory" -- a reference to Crimea and separatist-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine.
"We cannot betray them. We cannot forget them," he said.
Earlier in the day in Kyiv, Poroshenko said that his government did not release any Russian citizens in the prisoner swap on December 27, which was the largest such exchange since the war in eastern Ukraine began in April 2014.
"We will do more to get our citizens out of Russian jails...and because of that not a single Russian national was released by us now," he said, hinting that Kyiv would only agree to release Russians in Ukrainian custody in exchange for Ukrainians held in Russia.
On December 1, Ukrainian Ombudswoman Valeria Lutkovska said more than 2,000 Ukrainian citizens remain in Russian custody.
In March, the European Parliament called on Russia to free more than 30 Ukrainian citizens who were in prison or other conditions of restricted freedom in Russia, Crimea, and parts of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by the Russia-backed separatists.
Poroshenko named several Ukrainians held in Russia, including filmmaker Oleh Sentsov and journalist Roman Sushchenko.
Sentsov is serving a 20-year prison term, while Sushchenko is being held in Russia on suspicion of espionage. Kyiv says the charges against both men are fabricated.
In the December 27 swap, Ukraine handed 233 captives over to the Russia-backed separatists in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, while the separatists handed 74 Ukrainian nationals over to Kyiv.
After massive protests pushed Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from power in February 2014 following his decision to scrap a landmark deal with the European Union, Russia seized control of the Crimea region and fomented separatism across eastern and southern Ukraine.
The Russia-backed separatists seized parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, igniting the war -- which has killed more than 10,300 people and continues despite a 2015 deal on a case-fire and steps toward peace -- and severely straining Russia's relations with Kyiv and the West.
With reporting by UNIAN and Ukrayinska Pravda
Released In Russia, Tatar Activist Says Trading 'Small Prison' For Big One
By RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service
A Tatar activist who was convicted of separatism and inciting ethnic hatred in a case he said was politically motivated has been released from prison in northern Russia after serving a three-year term.
Rafis Kashapov sharply criticized Russia in comments to RFE/RL shortly after his release on December 27, saying that he was trading a "small prison" for a big one.
Kashapov, the first person in Russia to be imprisoned over public criticism of Russia's seizure of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, served his sentence in a prison in the Komi region city of Ukhta.
The chairman of the Tatar Public Center in the Tatarstan region, Kashapov was arrested in December 2014 and sentenced to three years in prison in September 2015.
His arrest came after he posted articles in which he criticized Moscow of violating the rights of Crimean Tatars. He also criticized Russia's involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Kashapov, 59, told RFE/RL that the case against him was "false" and politically motivated. He added that he planned to sue the penitentiaries he was kept in for three years, contending that they violated his rights.
"They kept me alone in a cell for the last 18 months. I had no source of information, nobody to talk to," Kashapov said. "They also did not give me a chance to pray five times a day, trying to intimidate me and insulting my feelings as a Muslim."
He said that he planned to take care of his health for several weeks and after that to continue his public activities.
"Everybody is congratulating me on being released but there is nothing to be happy about, because I left a small prison and entered a big one," Kashapov said.
Kashapov's Tatar Public Center is an NGO that campaigns to preserve Tatars' national identity, language, and culture.
The prominent Russian human rights group Memorial recognized Kashapov as a political prisoner when he was behind bars.