"Our international partners should increase pressure upon Russia to comply with the commitments under the Minsk agreements and demand the immediate release of Roman Sushchenko, Oleh Sentsov and other captives of the Kremlin," -- Iryna Herashchenko
The First Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Iryna Herashchenko took part in the opening of the paintings exhibition of the Ukrinform’s correspondent Roman Sushchenko, who had been illegally detained in the Russian Federation two years ago and sentenced by evidence-free accusations for up to 12 years.
Informing about the work of the TCG’s humanitarian subgroup, Iryna Herashchenko noted that the Ukrainian authorities have no signal at present from the Russian side as to unblocking the release of the illegally detained Ukrainians. "Russia does show complete disregard to the human rights, holding Ukrainians illegally. Ukraine does not recognize any of the pseudo-verdicts over the Ukrianians gripped," added I. Herashchenko. In addition, she said that 22 citizens of Russia had already lodged their appeals to Russia’s president requesting their return to the Russian Federation.
The Presidential envoy for a peaceful settlement of the Donenstk-Luhansk clash recalled that seventy Ukrainians and representatives of the Crimean Tatar people had been illegally detained in the Russian Federation and in the Crimea solely for political reasons.
During the event, Iryna Herashchenko notified that the Ukrainian foreign ministry appealed to the Russian side requesting full information about Oleh Sentsov’s health. According to her, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova also filed a special appeal to the Russian Federation’s ombudsman with the requirement to provide reliable information about the Ukrainian political prisoner.
In addition, the politician clued up the audience that Ukraine remains committed to the political and diplomatic regulation of the situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. She noted that to reinforce the negotiations toolkit the Parliament extended in October the law regulating the procedure of SRDLO’s local self-governance. She also emphasized that the said decision had already been welcomed by the international community, in particular, the Group of Seven states, the Normandy format countries, the US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker, and the US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
At the same time, the representative of the TCG’s humanitarian subgroup I.Herashchenko stressed that the Russian Federation had not as yet accomplished any of the Minsk agreements provisions, in particular, in the security and humanitarian areas.
"Our international partners should increase pressure upon the Russian Federation to fulfill their commitments under the Minsk agreements and demand the release of Roman Sushchenko, Oleh Sentsov, Stanislav Asieiev, Volodymyr Balukh and other Kremlin’s captives," said I. Herashchenko.