The transfer of a number of Ukrainian citizens held in the self-proclaimed Donbas republics to Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian parliamentarian and chairman of the political council of the Opposition Platform - For Life party, has been suspended, as the plane that had to bring these people did not take off, Leonid Kravchuk, head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), said on Thursday.

"This process has already been stopped for a very simple reason: the plane that had to bring the people didn't depart. Not because there is no fuel or something. There is a simple question: Who is flying on the plane? Do these people have passports? Have they been put on a special register? After all, it's not just a horseback ride. This was to be quite a long trip, and this was to be a trip between different countries, too. They were first to fly from Donetsk to Rostov-on-Don, then from Rostov-on-Don to Minsk, and then from Minsk to Ukraine. This is already unworkable. The plane can't do that," Kravchuk said in a Ukrainian TV program.

The transportation and return of Ukrainian citizens home is not an issue for Medvedchuk but an issue for Ukraine, Kravchuk said.

"I don't know, maybe there is a small state of Medvedchuk apart from the Ukrainian state. A private person can't handle matters of this level separately from the state, and if he ventures to do this or if this is supported by Russia, this means only that a PR stunt has been launched around this particular person to elevate his reputation," he said.

As was reported earlier, Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova received confirmation of two routes along which some Ukrainians unlawfully held in the parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions not controlled by Kyiv were to be unilaterally transferred to the territory under the Ukrainian government's control. At the same time, Denisova said the number of Ukrainians who were supposed to be released had been changed all the time.