OSCE envoy to visit captives in militia-held districts of Donbas in Aug - Kyiv
KYIV. July 31 (Interfax) - The humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine reached an agreement at its Skype conference on Monday that Toni Frisch, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) coordinator at the subgroup, would visit prisons in militia-held territories of Donbas in August.
"Among the important results is that we managed to agree that OSCE subgroup coordinator Frisch would visit prisons and hostages in occupied territories in August. We demanded an obligatory stopover at a Makiivka penal colony, where our servicemen are being held, and also a visit to detained women," Ukrainian envoy to the humanitarian subgroup Iryna Herashchenko said on her Facebook page on Monday.
The Ukrainian side reiterated the need to release Ukrainian journalist Stanyslav Aseev (Vasin) held in Donbas, calling on Russian representatives to facilitate this, she said.
Speaking of the Ukrainian side's plans for the Trilateral Contact Group meeting in Minsk on August 2, Herashchenko said that Kyiv would once again insist on the immediate release of captives.
The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) has accused the Ukrainian side of tampering with lists of captives and dodging the fulfillment of exchange agreements.
"The main issue [at the Skype conference] was to discuss in detail the list of people [slated for exchange] approved by both sides. I once again reminded representatives of Ukraine that they had not provided official replies to 61 requests seeking confirmation of the persons' presence in Ukrainian territory. At the same time, the Ukrainian side continues to overtly manipulate these lists, combining the numbers of supporters of both republics and thus reducing the overall number of people [slated for exchange]. Representatives of Kyiv are deliberately dodging the preliminary agreement on conducting an exchange of 'all identified persons for all identified persons'. The list of the persons requested by our side was forwarded to the humanitarian subgroup's coordinator," DPR human rights commissioner Darya Morozova told reporters after the subgroup video conference.
"Despite the constructive stance taken by the DPR, the Ukrainian side did not confirm its readiness to carry out this exchange and once again showed an absence of political will," Morozova said.
The conference participants discussed visits by OSCE representatives to penitentiaries where people detained by the Ukrainian side are being held, she said.
"I asked the coordinator of the humanitarian subgroup to visit the women who are subject to torture in Ukrainian prisons every day. And Mr. Frisch reaffirmed his readiness to come and inspect the conditions in the remand facilities of Mariupol and Artemivsk where detained persons are held," Morozova said.