President Petro Poroshenko met with the families of the Ukrainian hostages, held in Russian prisons in the occupied territories of Donbas and Crimea. The Head of State informed about the steps undertaken to release political prisoners and further actions. “Pavlo (Klimkin – ed.) is heading to a meeting of the Normandy format countries’ foreign ministers on June 11. And the first question apart from the deployment of peacekeeping mission, ceasefire and implementation of the Minsk Agreement, is issue of hostages. We have already agreed and coordinated our position, the French and German sides support us”, – said the President. He also said that at a meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk the presidential representative for the peaceful settlement of the situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Irina Gerashchenko, officially handed over a letter with a list of 23 Russians, who carried out the espionage activities in Ukraine, to be exchanged for Ukrainian political prisoners.

Petro Poroshenko also addressed the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmyla Denisova to make all the necessary steps to get an opportunity to visit political prisoners in the Crimea. The President also said that he met with the Hereditary Princess of Liechtenstein Sophie, one of the leaders of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and it was agreed that she will raise the issue of regular admission and humanitarian aid of the ICRC for Ukrainian political prisoners.

The President stressed that the issue of release of Ukrainian hostages is present in all its international negotiations. In particular, Petro Poroshenko during the telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discussed the need to raise the issue of the Ukrainian political prisoners at a meeting of G7 leaders. Also it is a question the President has discussed in Aachen with Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron. “And received a clear assurance that international solidarity and pressure on Russia will continue,” – said the Head of State.

The President expressed his support for all Ukrainian hostages and asked to tell them that Ukraine will continue to fight for their release. He also appealed to those who are starving: “We need you all alive”.

During the meeting, the deputy head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Akhtem Chiogoz read the address of a prisoner Vladimir Baluch, who has been starving for more than 80 days. He called for actions of the state toward the consolidation of efforts of patriotically-minded citizens and representatives of civic organizations, which conduct “holy fight against Moscovite occupiers”. “I believe that the creation of advisory and coordinating council under the President of Ukraine will significantly increase the efficiency of state efforts to release political prisoners, protect the rights and freedoms of citizens of Ukraine in temporarily occupied Crimea and improve the information component in the fight against Russian propaganda. By combining the efforts of the state and the Ukrainian community in Crimea, we significantly bring closer the triumph of higher justice to the decent possession of our, God-given earth. Crimea is Ukraine”, – said Vladimir Baluch.