Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) Leonid Kravchuk emphasizes that the agreements reached in Paris by the leaders of the Normandy format to ensure full and unconditional access of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to detainees are fulfilled only by Ukraine.
Leonid Kravchuk reminded that ORDLO and the Russian Federation also do not fulfill the agreements on providing unimpeded access for the ICRC reached during the meeting of advisors to the leaders of the Normandy format, which took place on September 11 this year in Berlin.
In this regard, he stressed that "Ukraine provides full and unimpeded access for ICRC representatives to persons who are reasonably accused of committing crimes and are detained in Ukraine, as evidenced by letters and reports on the work of international humanitarian organizations in Ukraine".
The Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG, in particular, said that on December 12, 2019, the Ukrainian parliament amended the Law of Ukraine "On Pre-trial Detention" in order to ensure unimpeded access of ICRC representatives to detainees.
He noted that “Ukraine is deeply grateful to the ICRC and the OSCE, in particular the ICRC Head of Delegation in Ukraine Mrs. Florence Gillette and the Coordinator of the Humanitarian Working Group at the TCG, Ambassador Toni Frisch for their consistent support of Ukraine's fair demands. At the same time, all appeals regarding the ICRC's access to detained citizens of Ukraine are grossly ignored and are not fulfilled by ORDLO and the Russian Federation".
"It is unacceptable and outrageous that from numerous appeals to find out the fate and visit 175 citizens of Ukraine detained in ORDLO we managed to get an answer only about one person!" Leonid Kravchuk emphasized.
"No less outrage is caused by the often inhumane conditions of detention of Ukrainian citizens, lack of medical care, ill-treatment, and often torture. We demand to put an end to the torture of our citizens and to ensure access of the ICRC representatives to them,” he added.
The Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG stressed that access must be provided, among other things, “to the secret Donetsk prison "Isolation" infamous for torturing Ukrainians and inhumane conditions of detention, as well as to all other torture chambers”.