We couldn’t achieve a final decision on the main issues of the agenda at today’s meeting of the Humanitarian Subgroup in Minsk. The Ukrainian side has once again violated its promises, as it failed to provide the official position on the “all for all” exchange, on adding citizens of the Russian Federation to the exchange list (they had been unilaterally removed from the list by the Ukrainian side) and on placing detainees into categories.
The beginning of the meeting was devoted to the health condition and access to timely medical assistance to conflict-related detainees in Ukraine. In addition, representatives of the Republics drew special attention to issues of torture and sexual violence against detainees. Also, I conveyed information on Y. Prosolova, who has been convicted in Ukraine, to the Coordinator of the Humanitarian Subgroup Tony Frisch. We are extremely concerned about her health condition and the use of violence against her, including due to political grounds, as well as the unlawful transfer to the Ternopil correctional colony.
Also, we raised a question of signing the Declaration condemning all forms of torture, ill-treatment, sexual violence and threats of violence against persons detained in connection with the conflict. The Ukrainian representatives ignored this initiative again. It can therefore be concluded that the use of unlawful pressure on detainees is nothing special for Ukraine that presents itself as a law-based State while not taking this matter as a relevant humanitarian aspect to discuss.
To conclude, it can definitely be said that the responsibility for non-compliance with the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk agreements lies on the Ukrainian side, as its representatives ignore Minsk talks, and their experts block the discussion of every single issue of the agenda.
