Russian-backed militants in eastern Ukrainian Donbas have transferred the Ukrainian a pre-trial detention facility and threaten them with a 30-year prison sentence, says Iryna Gerashchenko, first deputy chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada and Ukraine`s representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral contact group on Donbas settlement.
”The prisoners remain in jail, now in even worse conditions because they were transferred to a pre-trial detention center, where they are being threatened with a 30-year sentence. Meanwhile, a cross procession ”for peace” under the auspices of the Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is for some reason heading to Kyiv instead of Moscow, to [a Russian Patriarch] Kirill. It is there where they should pray and ask for peace and release of the Ukrainian people and Ukrainian land…” she wrote on Facebook.
According to Gerashchenko, back in April, ”when the representatives of the temporarily occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions deceived the whole world and refused to comply with their promise to free the hostages before Easter, poor mothers and wives of the captives sent a letter to Patriarch Kirill with the request to assist in the liberation of their loved ones; with prayers and a cry of despair – [asking him] to influence the militant leaders, who seem to be ”very devout”, festooned with crosses and St. George, for the release of the prisoners…”
However, according to Gerashchenko, these letters had no effect whatsoever.
As UNIAN reported earlier, as of June 8, there are 112 Ukrainians remaining in militant captivity and another 10 are held in the territory of the Russian Federation.
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