Recent negotiations about the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) in Minsk as part of Trilateral Contact Group talks have failed, as Russian-backed militants are seeking to interlink the release with the amnesty of their illegal armed formations, according to Ukraine representative of the group's humanitarian subgroup, MP Iryna Gerashchenko.

"Unfortunately, if we speak about the humanitarian group, there is no news about hostages. This issue is our focus of attention, yet militants are attempting to interlink it with the amnesty, which is pure blackmail," she wrote on Facebook on Tuesday evening.

Gerashchenko said she had raised the issue of the fulfillment by Russia of the Minsk agreements' clause about the release of POWs and hostages. In her words, she suggested that Russian representatives should be heard as the first issue on the agenda of the next meeting scheduled for October 6 – "how they are going to free Ukrainian citizens Nadia Savchenko, Oleh Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, others - by way of amnesty, clemency or just release them as those detained for far-fetched reasons."

She also added that there were 156 people in militant captivity – both as POWs and civil hostages, according to the Security Service of Ukraine.