As of today, Donbas militants hold 136 people hostage, Petro Poroshenko Bloc MP, Ukrainian president's representative for the peace process in Donbas Iryna Heraschenko has said on Feb. 11.
“According to the latest information updated by Ukraine’s Security Service on a weekly basis, 136 Ukrainian citizens are still held hostage. This figure includes both military personnel and civilians; furthermore, nine more people are held as political prisoners in Russian jails,” the Radio Liberty quoted Heraschenko saying.
She earlier said that Russian media had cited statements made by representatives of certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions that “the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic uses the so-called ‘Criminal Code’ based on the former USSR Code,” stipulating that hostages can be subject to 30-year imprisonment and the death penalty.
As reported, the release of hostages was a key issue on the agenda of a Jan. 13 meeting of the humanitarian sub-group meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on the settlement of the Donbas conflict in Minsk.
Later, on Jan. 27, Press Secretary of Ukraine’s envoy to the Group Darka Olifer said as a follow-up to the Minsk negotiations that the hostage swap remained blocked by representatives of the self-proclaimed Donbas republics.
