Regarding Chiygoz/Umerov:
Amnesty International called the release of the leaders "a positive step," but called for their being allowed to return to Crimea and speak freely.
"The de facto authorities in Crimea must stop this relentless suppression of dissent, immediately and unconditionally free all prisoners of conscience, and end the policy of prosecution and exile of their critics from Crimea," Amnesty International Ukraine director Oksana Pokalchuk said in an October 27 statement.
Freed Crimean Tatar leaders vow to return to Russian-held homeland:
By the Crimean Desk of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
KYIV -- Crimean Tatar leaders Ilmi Umerov and Akhtem Chiygoz, who were released from custody in their Russian-occupied homeland this week, have arrived in Kyiv and defiantly vowed to return to the Black Sea peninsula.
Umerov and Chiygoz -- deputy chairmen of the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatar self-governing body that has been outlawed by Russian authorities -- were unexpectedly released and flown to Turkey on October 25.
Speaking to journalists on October 27 at Kyiv's Boryspil Airport upon arrival from Ankara, Umerov and Chiygoz said they would return to Crimea in the near future -- despite being in the dark about the conditions of their release and not knowing whether Russia would permit them to travel there.
"I will go back home for sure," Umerov said. He said that two weeks before he and Chiygoz were released, two Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers in a hospital where he was being held urged him to write a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking for clemency.
"I rejected their request and nobody told me anything about my possible release or conditions for my return to Crimea," Umerov said.
Chiygoz also said he had made no request for clemency or transfer and emphasized that he "will not hide" from the Russian authorities.
"If they arrest me again after I return to Crimea it will be their problem," he said.
Both men expressed their thanks to the European Union, the United States, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), international organizations, their lawyers, and the presidents of Turkey and Ukraine for their efforts to secure their release. They said they will continue to "fight" for the release of all Ukrainian citizens in Russian custody and the restoration of Kyiv's sovereignty over Crimea.
Mejlis Chairman Refat Chubarov read out the names of dozens of Ukrainian citizens who have been jailed by Russian authorities since Moscow occupied the region and seized control of the region in March 2014, sending in troops with unmarked uniforms and staging a referendum denounced as illegitimate by 100 countries including the United States and Ukraine.
Veteran Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's efforts had made the release possible. Dzhemilev suggested that Putin agreed to release Chiygoz and Umerov because he was eager "to preserve close ties with Erdogan, as not so many world leaders shake hands with the Russian president these days."
Dzhemilev predicted that the Kremlin might use the release of the two Crimean Tatar leaders as leverage to seek the removal of sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States, the European Union, and others following its takeover of Crimea.
Here is today's map of the latest situation in the Donbas conflict, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE)
