The number of hostages held in the occupied territories has reached 127, First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ukraine’s representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the Tripartite Contact Group Iryna Gerashchenko said at a meeting with Director General of the Foreign Policy Department of the Portuguese Foreign Ministry Francisco Duarte Lopes.
“I told my Portuguese counterparts about our efforts to free the hostages in the occupied territories, whose number already stands at 127. I called to increase pressure on the Russian Federation in the matter of releasing political prisoners, to continue and strengthen sanctions until the Minsk agreements and the Crimea’s de-occupation are fully implemented,” she wrote on Facebook on April 27.
She noted that the key topics of the meeting were the situation in Donbas, an array of security and humanitarian issues, and the operation of Minsk groups.
