Ukrainian oppositionists failed to win support of the Council of Europe while raising the issue of political prisoners, Regions Party parliamentary faction MP, Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Ivan Popesku has said.

He noted that on Wednesday, January 23, PACE considered two reports. The first one was the report of the Monitoring Committee, it referred to commitment to the obligations to the Council of Europe.

The second report concerned the so-called political prisoners in Azerbaijan. According to Popesku, during a heated debate representatives of the Ukrainian opposition spoke to the participants of the meeting, and many parliamentarians from the European countries said that it was premature to draw any conclusions concerning political prisoners, as the issue should not be politicized.

"All our opposition representatives called to support the report on political prisoners and to extrapolate it to other countries, including Ukraine. The Council of Europe adopted the first report on the implementation of the commitments and rejected the report and resolution on the so-called political prisoners in Azerbaijan," Popesku said.

"Thus, the intention of the opposition to state loudly about political prisoners was not supported in the Council of Europe," the MP said.