In a statement Tuesday, ombudsperson Liudmyla Denisova raised a grieve concern over the fates of Ukrainian women that remain in prisons of the occupied Donbas.

‘Currently, 30 women are being illegally held in prisons and pre-trial detention centers in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where they are being tortured and ill-treated. Five of them need urgent medical attention due to health problems’, Denisova wrote.

Pressure must be put on Russia so that illegally detained Ukrainians could be released and return home, said Denisova.

She also related the story of Natalia Shylo, a Ukrainian teacher, who has been illegally held captive for six months in the temporarily occupied Donetsk region on the trumped up charges of ‘espionage for Ukraine’.

Natalia Shylo was detained in the occupied Horlivka on June 5, 2021, where she came from Kyiv to visit her elderly mother. Only 30 days after the detention, her relatives were allowed to hand over clothes and food.

The ombudsperson addresses Red Cross Mission in Ukraine head Florence Gillette to help with the release of Natalia Shylo and other detainees.