On 7 September, an exchange of prisoners between Ukraine and Russia took place.

A total of 70 prisoners, including the Ukrainian film maker Oleg Sentsov and the 24 Ukrainian sailors taken in captivity in November 2018, were released.

Oleg Sentsov was detained by the Russian authorities in 2014 and sentenced to 20 years in prison under terrorism charges after he openly expressed his criticism about the annexation of Crimea. The capture was highly condemned by the international community as an attempt to limit and threaten the freedom of expression. In 2018, Sentsov was awarded the European Parliament Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

The international community including the Council of Europe, the United Nations and the OSCE have repeatedly called for the Russian authorities to release all Ukrainian prisoners held on politically motivated charges.

ALDE Party member party Yabloko has also expressed concern about the matter. Following the exchange of prisoners, the party leader Grigory Yavlinksy reminded that, “It is good that the Russian authorities are capable of humanitarian actions. But the war continues...”

At the 2018 ALDE Congress in Madrid, the ALDE Party released a resolution calling for the release of Oleg Sentsov and all other Ukrainian political prisoners. See the resolution here.