KYIV. March 1(Interfax) - Ukraine's special representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), the All-Ukrainian Social Movement Ukrainian Choice leader Viktor Medvedchuk has proved most efficient in dealing with the issue of releasing "the Ukrainian hostages," President Petro Poroshenko said.
"We tried to use various channels of communication, from the military to the church. And I must admit that Viktor Medvedchuk has proved the most efficient one. Why? Because decisions on [hostages'] release are made by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin personally," Poroshenko told a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.
When the negotiators in Minsk were drafting and concluding Minsk agreements, the composition of the team he proposed was known, and Medvedchuk was not there, the president said. "There is the so-called humanitarian group, which deals exclusively with hostage release issues, it is part of the TCG. Indeed the former chief of the Security Service of Ukraine [Valentyn Nalyvaichenko] appointed Viktor Medvedchuk as a representative to this group. I knew about it, and I now stress that I will work with anyone who can efficiently bring at least one Ukrainian hostage back home," Poroshenko said.
He said he would talk to anyone who "will help bring the Ukrainian hostages home as well as introduce peacekeepers and bring peace into Ukrainian land."
The president said that he had recently met with the leader of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Onufriy, because there had been information that the church would manage to get five hostages freed from Donetsk, but it did not. "And I will continue looking for all channels of communications, including using this one," Poroshenko said.