Human rights are massively violated in the occupied territories.

"The occupied territories are closed for monitoring by international missions. And human rights are really, daily violated there. The world should know about this," Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas, First Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Iryna Gerashchenko said.

She also noted the Russian Federation is trying to divert attention of the world and show Ukraine as a country that organizes sabotage and terrorist attacks.

"Russian authorities are trying to discredit Ukraine in the eyes of the world. Therefore today we have so many of our hostages. Ukrainians who are grabbed in the occupied territories in Crimea and Ukrainian hostages who are detained in Russia, such as Roman Suschenko. This is an attempt to show that Ukraine is allegedly involved in sabotage, terrorist acts. This is an attempt to divert attention from its own aggressive policy. This is an attempt to knock into the head of the world that Crimea is Russia," she said.

The second reason for increasing the number of hostages, in her opinion, is the strengthening of blackmail and increasing pressure on Ukraine.

"This way Russia is trying to get certain political decisions from Ukraine," the official said.