As of October 20, there are 110 Ukrainian hostages on the occupied territories, First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the trilateral contact group on Donbas settlement Iryna Gerashchenko has said.

"Ukraine insists on the following sequence - security, humanitarian assistance and political issues. Yesterday’s 'Normandy format' was two-thirds devoted to security, but the humanitarian issue remains critical. Today there are 109 hostages in the occupied territories. One more man has been recently caught who went to his mother's funeral," Gerashchenko said on the air of "The right to power" TV show at "1plus1" TV channel on Thursday night.

Gerashchenko stressed: "We need to rescue all of them where pseudo-authorities were created under Moscow’s control. So it is extremely important for the president to raise the issue in the 'Normandy format' talks."

"I hope that the next week the OSCE Coordinator of the Working Group on Humanitarian Issues at the Trilateral Contact Group Toni Frisch will visit the occupied territories and meet with our fellows, who, according to the provided information, are held captives in one of Yenakiyeve colonies. He will be able to give them letters from their homes, and say that Ukraine is fighting for them," Gerashchenko said.