‘This war is a tragedy’: freed prisoner Ilya Yashin vows to re-educate Russians on Ukraine

Ilya Yashin, speaking in the Mauerpark, Berlin, on Wednesday, urged his fellow exiles to ‘engage in anti-war education’. Photograph: Maryam Majd/Getty Images

The Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin, freed from jail last week as part of the biggest prisoner exchange since the cold war between Moscow and the west, has said turning Russians against the war in Ukraine will be his focus now he is at liberty.

“I want to explain to my co-citizens in Russia that this war is a tragedy not just for Ukraine but for Russia too,” Ilya Yashin told the Guardian in an interview in Berlin. “As long as [Vladimir] Putin feels support from the population, he will feel confident.”