You're reading: Kyiv plans to hand list of 45 prisoners to Merkel, Hollande advisers

Ukrainian officials plan to hand a list of 45 people held in the territory of some areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions to advisers to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande on August 19, Iryna Gerashchenko, the Ukrainian first deputy speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and Ukrainian representative in the subgroup on humanitarian issues in the Trilateral Contact Group, has said.

“On August 19, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Kostiantyn Yeliseyev will give the lists of 45 prisoners to Berlin to advisers to Merkel and Hollande so that the leaders of Germany and France raise the question of their release at the highest level,” Gerashchenko was quoted as saying by the press service of the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko.

“The issue of hostage release is a priority for Ukraine. And Moscow has an answer to the question as to when the guys will be released, they make these decisions. We are doing everything to unblock the release process,” Gerashchenko said.

“We appeal to the world to pressure Moscow in this issue – all hostages should be released immediately,” she said.

Gerashchenko also said UN officials have been allowed meetings with the detainees in some areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions for the first time in the past two years.

She added Ukraine demands that representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) should be granted access to the territories of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.

No hostages have been released without the involvement of the SBU, the report said.

Gerashchenko also said the meetings scheduled to be held in Minsk on August 26 and September 7 will address the involvement of the ICRC in the search for and release of hostages.