You're reading: Humanitarian subgroup meeting raises hope of speedy release of hostages held in Luhansk

The results of the meeting of the humanitarian subgroup of the trilateral contact group on settling the conflict in Donbas has raised hopes for the speedy release of hostages held captive by militants in Luhansk, the representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup, MP Iryna Heraschenko, has said.

“As for the results of the humanitarian subgroup meeting, I hope that [soon], these days we will be able to free the hostages held in Luhansk. We demand the release of all people illegally detained and held in Donetsk,” Heraschenko wrote on her page on Facebook on Oct. 6.

She also said that the meeting of the subgroup on Oct. 6 focused on the issue of Ukrainian prisoners who are currently being held in Russia.

“At least ten Ukrainians are in prisons there. We demand that the ICRC representatives should be allowed to see them and the mechanism of their release should be developed. The Ukrainian side has sent more than 130 diplomatic notes, adopted more than 30 formal statements demanding the release of our citizens,” she said.

Heraschenko also said that the security subgroup of the trilateral contact group addressed the issue of mine clearance in eastern Ukraine.

“The key topic at a meeting of the security group was de-mining,” she wrote.