Yuriy Tandit, an advisor to the Ukrainian Security Service’s (SBU) chief, said on 112.Ukraine TV channel on March 12 that families had visited five Ukrainian POWs captured by the Luhansk separatists.
“Relatives, mothers, a sister and a number of volunteers, who accompanied the families to Luhansk,” visited the captives, he said.
The visit will last for a day or two, he said.
“The families should deliver some humanitarian aid and letters, and they would surely speak with their close people if that is possible,” he said.
He declined to disclose information about the captives whose families went to Luhansk.
“Hopefully, we will be able to release them soon, within the framework of the Minsk Agreements,” Tandit said.
The meeting became possible “thanks to agreements reached in Minsk and support from the Red Cross,” he said.
Tandit said though that Donetsk-based separatists had not yet given their consent with a similar family visitation of POWs held on their territories.
No Ukrainian security officials are accompanying the families on their trip to Luhansk, he said.
“We are unable to cross the disengagement line, although we have repeatedly offered to join such events,” he said, noting that Ukraine had received verbal guarantees from a Luhansk separatists and also from Olha Kobtseva representing them in Minsk.
