The Justice Ministry of Ukraine will appeal to the Council of Europe to declare that Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko is being held as a hostage on the territory of Russia and is being kept in inhumane conditions, based on which Russia will have to release her, Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko has said.

"We have already engaged the Foreign Ministry in this process, the Foreign Ministry is currently working at the diplomatic level, and we, for our part, have started to prepare an appeal to the Council of Europe, European Commissioner [for Human Rights] ... to declare her a hostage and [recognize] that she is being held in inhuman conditions... and then demand that Russia return her," Petrenko said, answering a question by Interfax-Ukraine concerning the specific steps the Justice Ministry is taking to comply with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's orders to return the Ukrainian pilot to her motherland.