Today, a meeting of the Humanitarian Subgroup took place in Minsk format. I would like to note that the Ukrainian delegates did not attend the meeting again. Consequently, we were unable to fully discuss the issues on the agenda.
Coordinator of the Humanitarian Subgroup told us that he was to visit Kiev the following day when he would visit persons from the list we provided. Given the adjustments made by the Ukrainian side, he said he was worried that he wouldn’t have enough time to visit the people from the list. We are really concerned about it, because last time we insisted that he visit Ms Prosolova who is held in a solitary confinement cell in an isolation ward of the SSU. They do not allow anyone to her, her health condition is not satisfactory, as she has been diagnosed with mammary fibroadenoma. The woman lost 22 kilograms.
Tomorrow, Mr. Frisch is meeting Ms. Denisova in order to advocate the importance of the issue of transfer of persons convicted before the conflict to the territory controlled by Ukraine so that they could continue serving sentences there. The issue is completely blocked by the Ukrainian side at the moment, and the coordinator of the subgroup is making every effort to deblock it.
As regards the issue of missing persons, Mr. Frisch is visiting their relatives tomorrow. For my part, I asked him to inform them about our readiness to implement the roadmap prepared by the ICRC as long as several years ago, and our side makes no obstacles in this issue.
As regards the issue of the prisoner exchange, the Ukrainian side did not provide any written position in response to our proposal to perform the second stage of the exchange under the formula “all confirmed for all confirmed”. Consequently, we asked Mr. Frisch to address this issue at the meeting of the Contact Group, and he actually did it. It is extremely difficult for us to move forward in the issue of the second stage of the exchange.
In conclusion, I would like to note that the unwillingness of the Ukrainian side to attend the meetings and the lack of their written positions concerning the agenda issues prevents us from addressing all of them in full. Thus, I believe, they do it on purpose so as not to implement Minsk Agreements.
