Poroshenko says he has spoken with Putin twice over the last month
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that his communication with Russian President Vladimir Putin was focused on the release of hostages.
In the last month, the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, spoke twice on the telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Poroshenko said this in an interview with the Bulgarian TV channel bTV.
“Over the last month we had two phone conversations, and they were entirely devoted to freeing of the hostages. You know that dozens of Ukrainians have been arrested and are in prison in Russia merely because they have Ukrainian passports,” the president said.
He also added that “hundreds of Ukrainians are held in the basements in the occupied territories as hostages.”
“Naturally, we are demanding compliance with the Minsk agreements, including the part that addresses the immediate release of hostages,” Poroshenko said.
In mid-June, the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup, Iryna Herashchenko, said that negotiations are being held for the release of 25 Ukrainian hostages imprisoned by separatists in the Donbas region.
According to the information provided in mid-May, there were 112 citizens of Ukraine held hostage in the Donbas.
In May and June, MP Nadiya Savchenko, Yuri Soloshenko and Gennady Afanasiev were released from imprisonment in Russia.