A new item from RFE/RL's news desk:
Zelenskiy Grants Citizenship to 14 Foreigners Who Defended Ukraine's Territory
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has signed a decree granting citizenship to 14 foreigners who fought for Ukrainian volunteer battalions and the military in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
The decree, signed on June 28, states that the individuals, one of whom is a Russian woman, “took part in protecting the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”
Among the recipients was Yulia Tolopa, a resident of the southern Russian city of Pyatigorsk who came to Ukraine at the height of the anti-government protests known as the Maidan in early 2014.
She later joined the Aidar and Donbas volunteer battalions when a Russian-backed armed uprising erupted in April 2014 in eastern Ukraine.
Tolopa later enlisted in the 58th Brigade of Ukraine’s armed forces.
Migration authorities denied her citizenship three times because she couldn’t provide proof that she didn’t have a criminal record in Russia.
In interviews she gave to Ukrainian media, Tolopa said she was afraid to enter the Russian consulate in Kyiv to obtain documentation.
Tolopa also gave birth to a daughter in Ukraine and still serves in the army.
With reporting by Hromadske.ua
A tweet from London's ambassador in Kyiv:
From RFE/RL's Belarus Service:
Four Ukrainian Prisoners Released By Russia-Backed Separatists Arrive In Minsk
MINSK -- Russia-backed separatists from Ukraine's eastern Donbas region have released four Ukrainian citizens, who have been flown to the Belarusian capital, Minsk.
Viktor Medvedchuk, the head of Ukraine's pro-Kremlin Opposition Platform -- For Life party, said in a televised news conference on June 28 that the four released prisoners are Eduard Mikheyev, Yakiv Veremeychyk, Dmytro Velykiy, and Maksym Horyayinov.
Three of the four Ukrainians are military servicemen, pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker Vadim Rabynovych said on Facebook. He didn't specify who the three were.
The four are scheduled to fly to Kyiv in the "near future," said Medvedchuk, whose eldest daughter has Russian President Vladimir Putin as her godfather.
The freed captives, who were transported from the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to Minsk, were at Medvedchuk's side during the news conference.
Medvedchuk said that an agreement to release the men was reached after talks with Moscow-backed militants, who control about 3 percent of Ukrainian territory in the easternmost regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
More than 13,000 people have been killed in the Donbas war zone since fighting broke out in April 2014, when an armed unit led by Igor Girkin, a former Russian Federal Security Service officer, took over the town of Slovyansk in the Donetsk region.
Two truces known as the Minsk accords -- brokered in September 2014 and February 2015 -- have contributed to a decrease in fighting but have failed to take hold.
More than 600 Ukrainian political and war prisoners are held in Russia, occupied Crimea, and in the non-government-controlled parts of the Donbas.
An additional 400 pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists are being held in Ukrainian prisons.
Ukrainian authorities say that between 2014 and 2018, 3,244 Ukrainian citizens were released from captivity on the territories controlled by Kremlin-backed militants.