Representatives of separate districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (ORDLO) in Minsk do not confirm dozens of Ukrainian citizens are being held by them, but they demand to transfer hundreds of criminals from Kyiv, Verkhovna Rada First Deputy Speaker and Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group Iryna Gerashchenko has said.

"We began to discuss the lists of those detained in the ORDLO. The problem is that the ORDLO doesn't confirm dozens of detainees. They conceal it. And they ask to transfer hundreds of criminals from Ukraine to Russia, including convicted Russians. Tomorrow we will continue working. We are doing everything possible to bring the next stage of hostage release closer," she said on Facebook on Tuesday following the results of the first round of two-day talks of working groups in Minsk.

She also said that during the meeting the forthcoming visit of the OSCE coordinator Toni Frisch to the prisons in the occupied territories was planned, which is scheduled for early September.

According to her, Kyiv insists that Frisch visit all military men who have been illegally detained by illegal armed groups for many years, as well as Ukrainian journalist and publicist Stanyslav Aseyev.

"I called on the Russian Federation to apply its unconditional influence on its puppets, stop the torture of a journalist who is pressured to "confess" to Russian propaganda cameras in "espionage," and immediately release the journalist," she said.

Gerashchenko added that Frisch, like representatives of the ICRC, has the opportunity to communicate with those held in Ukrainian prisons in a face to face format. "We insist that he should meet with our children in the occupied territories without "supervisors," she said.