Militants holding over 150 prisoners in Donbas – Kyiv

16:49, 07.10.2015 1 min read

Militants of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and People's Republics is holding 153 Ukrainian hostages, over a third of them civilians, Ukrainian representative to the humanitarian subgroup, parliament member Iryna Heraschenko (Petro Poroshenko Bloc) has said.

"As of today, according to information I have received from the Ukrainian Security Service, 153 Ukrainians are being held captive, including 62 civilians and the others are servicemen, representatives of battalions and others," she told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday.

In the words of Heraschenko, militants often set unacceptable demands for the release of hostages. "For instance, they demand that the Ukrainian side free serial killers, people involved in terrible crimes. Clearly, we are a law-governed state, it is impossible to take somebody by the hand, to bring, to walk out, etc," the deputy said.

She also said that the Ukrainian servicemen were being held captive illegally.