Twenty inmates from the No.52 correctional institution in Yenakiyeve, in the Donetsk region, were handed over to Ukraine on Tuesday in a ceremony that was attended by Verkhovna Rada's Human Rights Commissioner Valeriya Lutkovska, her spokesperson said.

"We have conducted yet another transfer of inmates from the correctional institution from the area of Donetsk region, which is temporarily not controlled by the Ukrainian government, where the current situation is extremely difficult, with no central heating, its canteen ruined, and no medical aid provided. This is already a second attempt to evacuate inmates from said correctional institution. Unfortunately, last year we were unable to do that," Lutkovska said.

This Tuesday saw a third successful transfer.

The first nine inmates were transferred in July 2015; the second transfer, with 20 inmates collected from a Donetsk pre-trial detention center, was on August 5, the human rights commissioner said.

Some of them were "in transit," i.e., in the middle of being transferred to another institution, or had arrived to take part in forensic examinations and then had to stay after the launch of the military operation in the region.