Ukrainian Representative in the Trilateral Contact Group's humanitarian subgroup, Iryna Heraschenko, accused the militants of artificially understating the number of Ukrainian hostages, who are being kept in the areas uncontrolled by Kyiv.
“Unfortunately, today it was an absolutely destructive discussion (on the part of DPR/LPR) […] They are artificially understating the number of hostages on their territories again. We are collecting information in pieces about the location of the captives, whom neither the Red Cross mission nor relatives are permitted to visit, and do not respond to our requests frequently,” she wrote on her Facebook page after the subgroup ended its meeting in Minsk on March 23.
On Wednesday, Donetsk and Luhansk representatives “came down to sheer nonsense, they already deny the facts of keeping several captives, though back yesterday they have cried about the ‘criminal cases’ against them under their ‘LPR/DPR codes’,” Heraschenko said.
“Representatives from several districts in the Luhansk region ‘have lost’ in the lists severely ill V. Zh. and other captives, and are not confirming their location,” Heraschenko wrote in confirmation of her words.
The situation is the same regarding several other hostages, she said. The Kyiv representative in the humanitarian subgroup demanded “the full lists of people,” whom the militants are keeping in captivity, be provided.
Heraschenko has also filed a demand from Ukrainian teachers and scientists to release well-known religious scholar Ihor Kozlovsky, who was detained back in January and arrested.
“Unfortunately, today there is no concrete news for the families of the hostages, but we insist on those who are sick, who have been kept [in captivity] for a long time, be primarily freed, and stick to this position. We insist on the process of release to be continued and not be blocked,” she said.
The Ukrainian representative in the humanitarian subgroup said that the special question was about Ukrainian serviceman, officer and parliamentarian, Nadia Savchenko, convicted in Russia. “[…] Nadiya needs to be released in line with the Minsk agreements,” Heraschenko wrote.
