Lavrov awaiting OSCE news on Donetsk "people's governor" Hubarev
MOSCOW. April 25 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has asked the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to inform him whether or not OSCE official have been allowed to visit the Donetsk region's "people's governor" Pavlo Hubarev, who was arrested on orders issued by the Kyiv authorities.
"We demanded that the OSCE mission currently working there immediately secure access to him. We also forwarded the same demand to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva," Lavrov said at a forum of young diplomats from CIS member states in Moscow.
"Both the OSCE and the Red Cross told us that they would immediately start to work on this demand. And we will be awaiting any information from them because if they are not allowed to meet him today, it will mean that the Ukrainian authorities are seeking to conceal his actual state. It means that they really have something to hide," the Russian minister said.
Moscow has information suggesting that Hubarev is seriously ill and that he was beaten and tortured in detention, he said.
Lavrov said he had regularly addressed the need to secure Hubarev's release in telephone conversations with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
"Our next conversation will take place today. Every time I ask him [Kerry] whether he has started to tackle this guy's issue, but he is unable to give any clear answer to me," Lavrov said.
