The Trilateral Contact Group ordered the subgroup on humanitarian issues to prepare for the release of prisoners in Donbas before the New Year holidays following the meeting in Minsk on Wednesday, Darka Olifer, press officer for Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine's representative in the contact group, said.

"The key issue addressed by the humanitarian subgroup is the release of illegally held persons. The Trilateral Contact Group has ordered the subgroup on humanitarian issues to prepare everything necessary for the release of the maximal number of people even before the New Year holidays," Olifer said on Facebook on Wednesday.