Tatiana Moskalkova, the Russian Federation’s Commissioner for Human Rights (Ombudsman), rejected the initiative of Ukraine to meet and discuss in Minsk the exchange of 36 Russian citizens sentenced for crimes against Ukraine for Ukrainian political prisoners, illegally detained in Russia. This was stated by the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, the representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup of the Tripartite Contact Group for the settlement of the situation in the Donbas, Iryna Gerashchenko, UNIAN reports.
“We still don’t give up, I officially informed representatives of the Russian Federation and the OSCE that 22 Russians convicted for preparing terrorist acts, sabotage, espionage, participation in illegal armed formations and military actions, wrote an appeal to President Putin with a request to move them to Russia in exchange for Ukrainians detained in Russian prisons. These appeals have already been sent through diplomatic channels to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, and I, duplicated them for the humanitarian subgroup. Russia will have to answer the question, whether they are going to take care of their citizens”, – said the representative of Ukraine.
