OSCE Coordinator of the Working Group on Humanitarian Issues at the Trilateral Contact Group, Ambassador Toni Frisch will soon visit the teenagers accused of subversive activity in occupied Donbas and attend Ukrainian hostages kept in separate districts in the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine.
“Ukrainians held hostage in the separate districts will be soon visited by the OSCE coordinator from the humanitarian group Mr. Frisch. He will bring them letters and parcels from the relatives – we’ve agreed on this,” Ukrainian parliament’s first deputy speaker Iryna Gerashchenko, who represents Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup, wrote on her Facebook page after a group meeting in Minsk on Wednesday.
Further, she said agreement had been reached that Frisch would also visit the boys held in a pre-trial detention center in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (“DPR”).
“The second key subject of the meeting was inadmissibility to involve children in the conflict. The Ukrainian side has sharply raised the question about the future of the minors against whom the self-proclaimed republic has brought a criminal case, accusing of sabotage. We regard this as an act of provocation against minors, the violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the principle of non-involvement of children in conflicts,” she wrote.
Kyiv is doing its best to ensure the release of the teenagers, she added.
Gerashchenko also informed that the Ukrainian side had brought the issue of illegal relocation of Ukrainian children living in foster families to Russia. Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Valeria Lutkovska “has again handed over the lists of such children [to representatives of the self-proclaimed republics], demanding that information about their life and whereabouts be provided,” she said.
“We’ve also asked representatives from the Russian side how many refugees from Donbas are now living in their territory and have been granted this status. In Russia, this is classified information – we cannot squeeze this information from them to know how many Ukrainians have fled to Russian territory,” she said.
As was reported, some Russian media reported on September 12, 2016, with reference to the website of the so-called the “DPR” State Security Ministry that seven teenagers had been detained in Donetsk region on suspicion of cooperating with Ukrainian special services and carrying out subversive activity in the “DPR.” The oldest was 18 years old, the youngest was 15.
Gerashchenko had earlier sent a letter to the OSCE and UNICEF, asking to verify online reports about the detention and tortures of the Ukrainian teenagers captured by “DPR” militants.
