Ukrainian hostages, whose names Russian proxies in Donbas removed from the exchange lists could have been tortured to death in remand facilities in the occupied areas of Donbas, according to First Deputy Chair of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's humanitarian envoy to the humanitarian unit of the Tripartite Contact Group on Donbas Settlement, Iryna Gerashchenko.
“The Ukrainian side raised another issue: we have every reason to fear that some of our hostages could have been tortured to death in prisons across the occupied territories. We provided the OSCE with information on 13 citizens who were being included in the exchange lists throughout these years, but then, for reasons unknown, their names disappeared from the lists of those who are confirmed and held," Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook.
"We demand a full report on the fate of these people," the official stressed, "just as on the fate of more than 70 Ukrainians, whose captivity is being concealed from us.”
She thanked Ukraine's representative to the TCG, Yevhen Marchuk, who "sharply raised the issue of the immediate release and the call for the OSCE and the ICRC to visit prisons in the occupied territories and search for our people there."
"It is a disgrace how Russia and their puppets in the occupied Donbas, traitors to Ukraine, react to the humanitarian disaster. It's not some new 'peace plans' that are needed to force Russia to give our people back, it's new tough sanctions," Gerashchenko is convinced.
