First Deputy Chairwoman of the Verkhovna Rada, representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group, Iryna Gerashchenko, has registered in the parliament a bill that would unblock the payment of aid to the families of political prisoners in Russia.

"As I promised, we have registered today a technical bill that will help the government to unblock the issue of payments to families of political prisoners of the Kremlin. I recall that we allocated UAH 96 million in this year budget for legal and social assistance to families of political prisoners and hostages. We paid social assistance from these funds to dismissed people in December 2017," she wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

Gerashchenko reminded that the government made a decision on one-time payments to families of political prisoners in Russia, but due to imperfect legislation the issue remains blocked.

"My bill does not require additional financial resources. On the contrary, it only normalizes the use of the allocated UAH 96 million, clearly attributing their purpose. I sincerely hope that colleagues will support this bill in the first days of the session," she wrote.

According to information on the website of the Verkhovna Rada, the bill "On Amendments to Appendix 3 to the Law of Ukraine" On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2018 "was registered on August 30 under No. 9026. The text of the draft law is missing on the parliament's website.