Poroshenko asks UNICEF to tackle situation with teenagers taken hostage in Donbas

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has called on the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to tackle the situation with teenagers who have been taken hostage by illegal armed formations in Donbas, calling such cases inadmissible.

"I was shocked to know that recently Russia-backed illegal armed formations in the occupied areas of Donbas took children hostage. They showed a video of interrogation of the teenagers who they absurdly accuse of conspiring and carrying out subversive operations. This behavior is out of place in the 21st century. We call on UNICEF to intervene and prevent abuses and tortures of these children," he said at the 71st session of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.

A number of Russian media reported on September 12, 2016, with reference to the website of the so-called the State Security Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic ("DPR") that seven teenagers had been detained in Donetsk region on suspicion of cooperating with Ukrainian special services and carrying out subversive activity in the "DPR." The oldest was 18 years old, the youngest was 15.

First Deputy Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas Iryna Gerashchenko earlier sent a letter to the OSCE and UNICEF, asking to verify online reports about the detention and tortures of the Ukrainian teenagers captured by "DPR" militants.