A meeting of the public platform on the release of political prisoners through a videoconference with Crimean activists and relatives of persons illegally detained by the occupation authorities was held at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on Saturday, October 28, the ministry's press service has reported.

"This is a special meeting. Today, we all gathered together in Kyiv and temporarily occupied Crimea. I am especially pleased that deputy head of the Mejlis, Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov for who Russian torture is already over, are together with us," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin said, while opening the event.

The meeting participants agreed on concrete steps for the release of illegally held citizens of Ukraine and assistance to their families, access of Ukrainian citizens in the occupied Crimea to education and an entire range of public services, including the simplified processing of necessary documents.

"Separately, representatives of the state authorities, human rights activists and Crimean activists exchanged views on legislative initiatives in the field of protecting the rights of political prisoners," the report reads.

The meeting was attended by the Ukrainian president's commissioner for the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Jemilev, the chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Refat Chubarov, special representatives of the foreign minister on the release of political prisoners, Yuriy Yatsenko and Hennadiy Afanasyev, representatives of NGOs CrimeaSOS, the association of relatives of political prisoners of the Kremlin, the Crimean Human Rights Group, the Center for Civil Liberties, the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, and the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.