The detainees’ families met at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine with Toni Frisch, Ambassador, the Humanitarian Working Group Coordinator

Hosted by the Parliament, there was a meeting on July 26 initiated by Iryna Herashchenko, Ukraine’s representative of the TCG’s Humanitarian Working Group, the First Deputy Chairperson of the Vekhovna Rada of Ukraine, between members of families of the hostages illegally held in the occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts (regions) and Toni Frisch, the Coordinator of the TCG’s Humanitarian Working Group.

The meeting was attended by representatives and experts from the TCG’s Humanitarian Working Group, the Joint Center for Coordination of Search, Release of Captives, Hostages and Location of Missing Persons in the ATO (JFO) area, the line ministry, the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights, etc.

T. Frisch’s attention has been drawn to the fact there are no contacts yet available between the detainees and their family members, including transferring postal parcels, mails, letters or providing family contact calls. It was also stressed there has for four years been no opportunity for the OSCE and the International Committee of the Red Cross’s missions to get access to the illegally held Ukrainians, having at the same time a reverse situation against visiting the Ukraine-held convicts serving their sentence for committing crimes against Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Toni Frisch was called to visit in autumn the Ukrainian servicemen which have been under the hatches since the Ilovaisk and Debaltseve developments.

The families pointed out they expect a more active position of the OSCE on the above mentioned issues.

Following the families’ speeches, Toni Frisch made a promise to visit the hostages in September this year. He also underlined at the next sitting of the working group, there would be touched upon the issue concerning transferring mail and parcels to the illegally detained citizens of Ukraine.

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