President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in a telephone conversation has thanked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for an active participation in the Normandy format summit on December 9, due to which agreements to return part of detainees kept in the occupied Donbas have been achieved.

"Unfortunately, we did not manage to free all, but we returned 76 people. And we are very grateful for your participation in this process," Zelensky said as a president's press service reported on Wednesday.

Zelensky emphasized that work on the formation of the lists for the next release of detainees was underway.

In addition, President of Ukraine expressed concern about the non-admission of representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to illegally detained persons in the territories beyond the control of Ukraine.