Ukrainian, Russian ombudsmen’s meeting in Ankara focused on solving humanitarian problems

ANKARA

The meeting between Ukrainian and Russian ombudsmen in the Turkish capital Ankara was focused on solving humanitarian issues.

Dmitro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament commissioner for human rights, and Tatyana Moskalkova, Russia's commissioner for human rights, met as part of an international conference on the future of human rights in the 21st century.

The two agreed to exchange more than 40 prisoners of war.

"We talked about many humanitarian issues, such as family reunification, return of children, exchange of identity information of people in Ukraine or Russia,” Lubinets told reporters after the meeting.

"We have focused especially on the issue of civilian Ukrainian citizens serving prison sentences in the Russian Federation since 2014. The number of Ukrainian citizens who can be included in this category is quite large,” he said.

Praising the participation of the Turkish chief ombudsman Seref Malkoc in the bilateral meeting, Lubinets thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish people for their support for Ukraine's territorial integrity.

He said they welcome all the initiatives to solve humanitarian issues.

Lubinets also underlined "the problems experienced by Ukrainian citizens who lost their identity and other personal documents in conflicts, illegal and unlawful acts such as the deportation of children, filtration camps, separation of families” in the Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Last September, Ukraine’s separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and Russian-controlled parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson held referendums on joining Russia.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar