The announcement of a hunger strike by several mothers and wives of Ukrainian citizens who are being held hostages by militants in Donbas will not help to secure their prompt release, Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the trilateral contact group, the president's envoy for Donbas settlement Iryna Gerashchenko has said.

"It is unlikely that the guys, who are in captivity now, will be happy if they learn that their mothers and wives have decided to stop eating .... I know from the prisoners that they suffer knowing that their relatives can not hug them, that they are fighting and waiting for so long ... and today, as a result of certain action by the presidential administration, a few poor women have decided to starve ... If this somehow helped in the liberation of their children for whom we are fighting now ... If it somehow melted the hearts of those who have the keys to the prisons where our hostages are kept.... it is obviously won’t help," Gerashchenko wrote on her Facebook page on Monday night.

Geraschenko also expressed the view that “it is irresponsible and cruel to engage families of hostages in such ventures, to use their despair in such a way."

As reported, on August 8, the rally, entitled "Do not leave your people behind," demanding the prompt release of Ukrainian citizens held captive, took place on Bankova Street in the center of Kyiv near the Ukraine’s presidential administration building. The rally organizer is Ukrainian parliamentarian of the Batkivschyna faction Nadiia Savchenko. About 100 people took part.

Addressing the gathering, Savchenko said that the process of prisoners’ release should be accelerated, because it takes a few months now. "The president had to work out the real mechanism of people exchange long ago ... It needs to be simplified, and it is possible to simplify. Self-promotion is inappropriate here, and there is no need to say that it’s difficult. It is not!" MP said at the rally.

Subsequently, the protesters asked the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko to take specific steps for the release of people. "We are waiting for specific steps for the release of prisoners," the letter states, signed by the rally participants.

Savchenko said she will bring the letter to the presidential administration herself. She confirmed that she went on hunger strike for the purposes of drawing the government's attention to the issue of the release of captives.

“I continue my hunger strike,” she said.

Savchenko confirmed that she went on hunger strike for the purposes of drawing the government's attention to the issue of the release of captives. However, this did not happen, she said. "I believe, both the people's deputies, including the Parliament's First Deputy Speaker Iryna Gerashchenko, and the Ukrainian president should have participated in the rally," she said.

Several relatives of Ukrainian captives held by militants in Donbas joined Savchenko’s hunger strike.