“The Ukrainian side does insist upon a special sitting of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine to talk over the illicit elections in the occupied Donbas,” – Iryna Herashchenko
On November 13, the Ukrainian representative in the TCG’s humanitarian sub-group I.Herashchenko participated in a roundtable discussion on the rights of Ukrainian detainees in the SRDLO (separate regions of the Donetsk-Luhansk oblasts - the temporarily occupied territories of the Donbas), organized by the Ukrainian ombudsman’s secretariat.
Speaking to the debaters, she stressed the Kremlin-instigated so called “elections” held in the SRDLO on November 11, have significantly entangled the peaceful negotiating process. As per her, Russia does hanker for legitimizing the so called “republics” in order to make Kyiv to direct negotiations with the SRDLO’s puppets, that – it has been underlined – goes against the Minsk accords, stipulating solely for a trilateral dialogue. She also accentuated other risks the so-called "elections" might bring - in particular, escalation at the front line and a serious destabilization of the security and political situation - as it had been in 2014.
The First Deputy Chairperson also observed that Russia seeks to destabilize the political situation in Ukraine in the build-up to presidential and parliamentary elections in 2019.
The politician called for an extra meeting of the TCGroup to discuss the illicit Donbas “elections”.
Iryna Herashchenko clued up that releasing the hostages and the Kremlin’s political prisoners had been also blocked fast among other important issues at stake. Ukraine has received from Russians no response to its numerous detainee swap offers (including the teenagers seized in 2016) for two years. The Ukrainian side is ready to pardon sixty and odd separatists against the release of Ukrainian military and civilian detainees in the occupied Donbas.
The First Vice-Speaker also appealed to representatives of international humanitarian missions of the OSCE, the UN and the ICRC to demand complete and unhindered access to the illegally detained in the occupied Donbas and Crimea.
The Ukrainian ombudsperson Liudmyla Denisova emphasized that the status of persons convicted in the Donbas before 2014 must be settled by law. Appropriate bill No.8560 is at issue in the parliament.
In addition, L.Denisova called on to make an integrated register of those convicted in the Donbas prior to 2014. According to her, the funds for this project were appropriated in the draft 2019 state budget document.