Umerov denies media reports of frustration over U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff
Head of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service Rustem Umerov denied a report by The Kyiv Independent claiming that Ukrainian officials are “growing increasingly frustrated” with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, Axios wrote on September 20.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov, formerly the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, appeared on CNN to discuss Russia's political prisoners. He displayed photographs of theater director Zhenya Berkovich, former municipal deputy Alexei Gorinov, pediatrician Nadezhda Buyanova, and Samara saxophonist Andrei Shabanov, as well as a picture of pianist Pavel Kushnir, who passed away while in custody.
According to Berkovich's lawyers, she now weighs approximately 40 kilograms and has been placed in a punishment cell on multiple occasions for minor infractions such as wearing her headscarf incorrectly and not putting her hands behind her back quickly enough. Muratov also mentioned Alexandra Strilets, whose daughter died while imprisoned on treason charges.
He called upon American politicians, particularly U.S. President Donald Trump's envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to release these political prisoners. Witkoff has visited Moscow eight or more times, but his plane always returns empty. Muratov questioned why he doesn't request Putin to release a few political prisoners so they can accompany him back to the U.S. The full interview transcript is available on the Ekho website.
Written by urgent.news from Meduza (English)'s reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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