16:40 28.02.2017

Savchenko crossed demarcation line in eastern Ukraine on "foot paths" known to SBU

2 min read
Savchenko crossed demarcation line in eastern Ukraine on "foot paths" known to SBU

Non-aligned deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Nadiya Savchenko says she crossed the line of demarcation [between Ukrainian troops and combined Russian-separatist forces] in eastern Ukraine using foot paths used by contraband traders.

"I crossed the line on foot paths used by contraband traders," she said during a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday. She added Ukraine's SBU Security Service knows the routes, which she said are used by some 6,000 inhabitants of eastern Ukraine daily.

Savchenko said she offered to work with the SBU on ways to release Ukrainian soldiers held in captivity by militants in eastern Ukraine, but was rebuffed.

The deputy said she did not cross over into occupied areas of Donbas with the head of the Prisoner Release Center Volodymyr Ruban.

"I did not make the crossing with Ruban," she said, adding that they [Ukrainian authorities] are doing everything in their power to complicate his efforts to win the release of prisoners.

Savchenko said she does not consider her trip to occupied Donbas to be criminal, because the area is Ukrainian territory.

She said it is necessary to visit all prisons in occupied eastern Ukraine to find citizens of Ukraine, whom the militants are hiding.

"It is necessary also for observers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation Europe or the Red Cross to visit [these prisons], in order to determine how many people are being held," Savchenko said, adding that one person in her list [of prisoners] said he would refuse to return to Ukraine.

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