The Ukrainian side in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) has demanded the immediate release of 24 Ukrainian sailors captured by Russia in the Kerch Strait without any conditions and exchanges, as they are prisoners of war, First Deputy Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament and Ukraine's envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group's humanitarian subgroup Iryna Gerashchenko has said.

"Ukraine demands the immediate release of 24 Ukrainian sailors, prisoners of war, who are kept in Russia without any reasons. They are subject to the Geneva Conventions. Prisoners of war cannot be judged, and we demand their immediate release without preconditions, without any exchanges," Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook following the TCG meeting in Minsk on Tuesday.