The humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group met in Minsk on June 1 to discuss the number, whereabouts and release of Ukrainian captives from the self-proclaimed republics in Donbas.
The first and key problem Ukraine faces on this issue is the information of the prisoners’ whereabouts, Ukraine’s representative in the subgroup and parliamentarian Iryna Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook.
“The separate areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions are cynically concealing the information and facts regarding the location and number of Ukrainian captives on their territory, trying to deceive the whole world that there are only a few dozen hostages, and blackmailing us into granting amnesty to hundreds of militants in exchange for some of our hostages,” Gerashchenko said.
The Ukrainian representative in the Contact Group, jointly with the Security Service of Ukraine, has to look for such information “bit by bit” because then they can include such people on the release list and demand truthful information about the fate of these people, she said.
“Today the humanitarian subgroup, where Ukraine is also represented by [Ukrainian Choice movement leader] Viktor Medvedchuk, spent the lion’s share of its work discussing the hostages’ whereabouts and showed the OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] convincing evidence of militants concealing information about individuals being held in the occupied territories. We proved that at least 14 people from the list of hostages are being held there, which means that we will demand their inclusion in the lists for release. And their release! And access to the Ukrainian captives by the ICRC [the International Committee of the Red Cross],” Gerashchenko said.
According to Gerashchenko, Ukrainian members of the humanitarian affairs panel “did not even receive an answer about the historian Kozlovsky, who was charged with espionage, the whereabouts of seriously ill Volodymyr Zhemchuhov, whose release has been brought up at every meeting held since October 2015 and about the fate of a United Nations employee detained in occupied Donbas, even though this information was promised to us and the OSCE.”
Gerashchenko said former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, a representative of Ukraine at the Trilateral Contact Group talks, demanded the immediate release of the UN employee, who is protected with special status. Kremlin-led militants had promised to set him free in early May.
At the same time, there has been some progress in the talks over prisoners’ release, and Ukraine is willing to make compromises on this issue, she said. “We are moving, in several directions, looking for ways to pull out our boys. There will be no detail for understandable reasons. The separate districts and the RF [Russian Federation] insist on the amnesty, thereby blocking the fast process of release today, unfortunately. But Ukraine considers the release of its citizens a priority, we are ready for compromises here…We’re working. There will be news,” Gerashchenko wrote.
