In his Sunday video address, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky shed a light on the story of Nariman Jelyal, a Crimean Tatar prominent activist, who was detained by Russian officials in Crimea a year ago.

The activist was put behind the bars after he visited a Crimean Platform event held by Ukrainian officials. His speech made Moscow irate and led to his arrest on trumped-up charges.

Crimea has become one of the ‘most dangerous and unfree’ places in Europe while Nariman Jelyal stood up challenged the situation to bring back a ‘normal life’ to the occupied peninsula.

Zelensky said he is confident the Ukrainian flag will soon fly in Crimea as Ukraine’s armed forces and intelligence agencies are ‘taking the needed steps toward it’.

It alerted the occupiers who are now fleeing Crimea, said Zelensky, adding that Kyiv will give back freedom to the people there and make it one of the ‘most comfortable places’.

The president also said he held meetings with the Ukrainian Army and intelligence senior officials, and the reports coming from the front lines are ‘good’.

Zelensky also praised the soldiers of 63^rd battalion and 103^rd territorial defense brigade, and 54^th brigade whose effort helped reclaim the position near Lysychansk and Siversk.

The day proved busy for Zelensky on the diplomatic front as well – the Ukrainian leader said he had a phone conversation with EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

The conversation touched on the issue of the new sanctions targeting Russia, specificall visa curbs so that ‘everybody who is engaged in this war will not be able to use the European hospitality’.

Zelensky called it an ‘imporant moral thing’ as Europe is a territory of ‘virtues’ and not a ‘Disneyland’ park for ‘advocates of terror’ and the new visa restrictions are set to make Russians feel the heat.