According to the ZMINA Center for Human Rights, which is one of the organizers of the campaign, 127 Ukrainians, including 89 Crimean Tatars, are in prison or under house arrest in Russia and on the occupied peninsula for political reasons. The program and the first results were discussed in the "Topic of the Day" with Nadezhda Dobryanskaya - project manager of the Center for Human Rights ZMINA and Andriy Kurkov - Ukrainian writer, journalist, screenwriter.

Nadiya Dobryanska said that the goal of this project is to make the stories of all Ukrainian political prisoners as visible as possible. The stories of journalists, as well as the former journalist, the current first deputy chairman of the Crimean Tatar People's Majlis, were chosen not by chance:

"The founders of the PEN organization are writers, poets and journalists, and therefore among all political prisoners were chosen those with whom writers and journalists could speak in solidarity. We have chosen to work with the stories of those political prisoners who are journalists, most of whom are citizen journalists. A total of 12 of them are ten Crimean Tatar citizen journalists and one freelance journalist of Radio Svoboda, as well as expert Alexei Besarabov. We are also working with historian Nariman Dzhelyalov, who is not a journalist now, but has been one in the past”.

Potential ambassadors were approached to combine the efforts of well-known writers and journalists with a wide audience. The project manager decided not to talk about those who did not respond to such a proposal. According to Dobryanska, 13 people who became representatives of illegal prisoners should speak in the voice of political prisoners, call for their release, appeal to international organizations and the general public.

The ambassadors themselves will decide which measures to take during the campaign, depending on the level of workload and their own capabilities. There are already some results of the ambassadors' actions:

"We watched the reaction to our publications about the launch of the project on social networks, we see that there is already a response. For example, Mr. Myroslav Marynovych very quickly published an article about Server Mustafayev, whose ambassador he is. I think this is a good result, because we are not postponing, we have already started work".

In turn, Andriy Kurkov, a Ukrainian writer, journalist and screenwriter, spoke about his experience as an ambassador. He represents the deputy of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, imprisoned by the occupiers Nariman Dzhelyalov, a former journalist.

When I was approached and offered to take part, I immediately agreed. Because it is normal practice for public figures, writers and journalists to represent the interests of illegally imprisoned colleagues, creative people, people fighting for the right to speak the truth. And Nariman - I have a personal attitude to him, I respect him very much for his courage and for the fact that he knew in principle what risk he was taking when he went to Kyiv for the Crimean Platform summit and he knew what awaited him when he returned. In principle, it is self-sacrifice, but it does not mean that we should calmly watch people sacrifice themselves for the sake of the truth, for the sake of their homeland.

He noted that one of the tools to remind the world about Nariman Dzhelyalov is to regularly publish posts about the latest events, the latest news on his case. However, the reaction to such messages is not always:

"I am always upset by the reaction of the audience of social networks on serious topics. In principle, any kitten provokes hundreds of likes, but any post about human rights violations, it generates much less interest or much less reaction. But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. A lot of people don't know how to react to such information".

According to Andriy Kurkov, the best reaction to such posts is as follows:

“This is a repost, so that there is a viral reaction, so that these posts are constantly reposted, so that translations into other languages ​​appear, so that they are repointed abroad, so that it reaches the eyes of foreign politicians and human rights activists, so that our problems become their problems too . There is no separate Ukraine now, there is Ukraine in the context of a democratic Europe, a democratic world. A world where the first and most important thing is human values, human rights, the values ​​of democracy”.

The writer called the release of all illegally detained and illegally imprisoned citizens of Ukraine the main goal:

"I remember how for several years we organized and took part in actions demanding the release of Oleg Sentsov and other Belarusian prisoners from Russian prisons. For us, the main goal is the release of Nariman Dzhelyalov and his colleagues, and Ukrainian Crimean Tatar journalists and not only journalists. This is the main goal. I don't know how long it will take before this goal is achieved, but the main thing is not to stop and just make it a part of your life rhythm”.