The European Union is relieved by the release and transfer to freedom outside Russia and Belarus of a number of political prisoners, including EU citizens, facilitated with the help of Türkiye.

The released activists, human rights defenders and journalists have been unjustly persecuted and imprisoned by Russian and Belarusian regimes for political reasons and held in intolerable conditions.

Political prisoners and all those still unjustly detained in Russian and Belarusian prisons must be immediately and unconditionally released.