President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has called on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to double efforts to protect human rights and freedoms in the occupied territories of Donbas and Crimea.

"I also call upon the Honorable Assembly to continue paying special attention to the issue of respect for human rights in the occupied Crimea and Donbas. Only close attention to these regions will be able to weaken the current persecutions," Poroshenko said at a plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on Wednesday.

"I call on the members of the Assembly, the Committee of Ministers, the Secretary General, the Commissioner for Human Rights and relevant monitoring bodies to double their efforts to protect human rights and freedoms," he said.