Kyiv insists that OSCE coordinator Frisch visit all prisons in DPR, LPR
KYIV. Aug 24 (Interfax) - Toni Frisch, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) coordinator in the Trilateral Contact Group's humanitarian subgroup, has visited a penitentiary in Makiivka, located in militia-held territory of the Donetsk region, where Ukrainian armed forces servicemen are being held.
In light of this, the Ukrainian side insists that Frisch should also visit other penitentiaries both in this region and the Luhansk region, Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada first deputy speaker and representative to the Trilateral Contact Group's humanitarian subgroup Iryna Herashchenko said.
"Minsk. Humanitarian subgroup. We listened to information provided by OSCE coordinator Frisch, who visited the Makiivka penal colony, where our servicemen taken hostage are being held, a few days ago. He was able to meet with several guys and see the conditions in which they are being held," Herashchenko said on her Facebook page on Thursday following the contact group's August 23 meeting.
"Regrettably, he was unable to visit other prisons in the occupied territories. We insist that in the near future Frisch also visit prisons in the occupied Luhansk [self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, LPR] and also hostages being held in other prisons, apart from the one in Makiivka," she said.
All other international humanitarian and monitoring missions, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, still have no access to these prisons, Herashchenko said.
Frisch visited several prisons in Kyiv-controlled parts of Donbas, she said.
Speaking about the process of hostage release, Herashchenko said that the Ukrainian side had put forth a specific suggestion: immediately release all confirmed persons, but only those who fall under the Minsk Agreements.
"We called on the second side to abandon its destructive position regarding a demand to free persons who are not related to the conflict in Donbas such as [former] Berkut [police force] officers or terrorists from Odesa and Kharkiv. This is the stance that was also aired by the president of Ukraine during Normand format talks, and our European partners support it," she said.
