A 37-year-old Ukrainian prisoner Ruslan Makarets was killed in Makiyivka correctional colony No.32, located in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk region, Verkhovna Rada Human Rights Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova has said.

"I received the shocking news of the death of our fellow citizen, 37-year-old Ruslan Makarts, in Makiyivka correctional colony No.32, located in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk region. The death of Ruslan Makarts came as a result of stabbing him," she said on Facebook on Friday.

Denisova said the Ukrainian citizen was detained by the occupation authorities on March 22, 2019 in occupied Horlivka, after which he was illegally sentenced to 13 years in prison for allegedly "spying for the Ukrainian special services."

"The Ukrainian authorities tried to free Ruslan from captivity. However, the process of releasing persons from the territories not controlled by the government of Ukraine does not take place due to the blocking of the implementation of the Minsk agreements by the aggressor country. The last time nine illegally deprived Ukrainian citizens from the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk region were transferred on April 16, 2020 years," the ombudsperson said.

Currently, according to Denisova's information, Russian illegal armed groups in ORDLO are holding 301 Ukrainian citizens in prisons: some 224 in Donetsk and 77 in Luhansk region.

"Due to the suspension of the liberation process, the rights to life and safety of our fellow citizens who are in places of detention in uncontrolled territories have been violated. Since the beginning of the year, four citizens of Ukraine have died in the colonies in the Donetsk region due to the criminal inaction of the occupation administration," the commissioner said.

Denisova asks Head of the ICRC mission in Ukraine Florence Gillette to visit Makiyivka correctional colony to check the circumstances of the death of the Ukrainian citizen and the state of observance of the rights of other detained persons.

In addition, the ombudsperson asks representative of Ukraine in the working subgroup on humanitarian issues in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) for the peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas Halyna Tretiakova and the coordinator in this subgroup from the OSCE Charlotte Relander to urgently take action to respond to the death of the Ukrainian and unblock the process of the detainees.

"I said this process must be restored without delay, because the lives of hundreds of our fellow citizens are under threat. I express my condolences to Ruslan's family and friends," she said.