The Ukrainian side continues to expect an official response from Russia to the proposal to swap 36 Russian citizens for Ukrainian prisoners being held in Russia, the press service of the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko’s Solidarity Party has reported, referring to First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Iryna Gerashchenko, the president’s representative on the peaceful settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine.
“Together with Ombudsman Liudmyla Denisova, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Presidential Administration and other institutions, we informed the families of political prisoners and hostages about the work carried out by the Ukrainian government to release and support hostages and political prisoners. I share their indignation, because some still do not receive assistance from the state for lawyers defending Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars in Crimea (despite the fact that the Verkhovna Rada envisaged significant amounts, more than Hr 90 million, in the budget in support of political prisoners and their families, including lawyer services),” she wrote
Gerashchenko also told those present that she, together with her colleagues, had appealed to the government with a request to make a decision and work out an algorithm for supporting the families of political prisoners and legislative initiatives on the status of political prisoners, to which the parliament should return in September.
“We exchanged information on the health of political prisoners […] On many of our political prisoners information about the state of their health causes concern and anxiety,” Gerashchenko said, adding that those present coordinated joint actions to call on the world community to put pressure on Russia in the issue of release hostages and political prisoners and demand that the ICRC gain access to Ukrainians illegally detained in Russia, as well as in occupied Donbas and Crimea.
