Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said he hopes for a positive solution to the issue of the release of hostages and political prisoners held in Russia and in occupied areas of Donbas, as well as for the consideration of this issue at a meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I am optimistic, because all the leaders of the NATO member states, more than 15, including President Macron, know the names of political prisoners in Russia. Sentsov, Sushchenko who was a journalist of the Ukrainian media accredited in Paris. He was illegally arrested in Moscow. President Macron and the First Lady know his name and insist on raising this issue at a meeting with Putin," the press service of the head of state reported on Friday, quoting Poroshenko as saying in an interview with France 24.

At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that people the release of which Russia demands are real criminals, while Ukrainian citizens held in Russia are persecuted for patriotism and they are political prisoners. As an example, he named activist Volodymyr Balukh from Crimea.

"He only put a Ukrainian flag in the occupied Crimea. Can you imagine that people who established the French flag are jailed for seven years?" Poroshenko said.

The president also noted that Ukraine had detained and convicted criminals and terrorists against whom there was an independent court decision because of their terrorist actions.

When asked whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will make any concessions in this matter, Poroshenko recalled that more than 3,000 hostages had already been released from the captivity of pro-Russian terrorists.

"Of course, Putin doesn't need them. This is an instrument of political pressure on Ukraine and the Ukrainian authorities. Now, when the whole world knows the real situation, Putin cannot explain why they keep in prisons in Moscow, in the occupied Crimea, in Siberia Ukrainian heroes who simply love their Fatherland," the president said.