“The decision to transfer not to Ukraine, but to a private person Viktor Medvedchuk, a group of Ukrainian citizens who had been held in Donetsk and Luhansk regions for a long time, grossly and openly violates the established mechanisms for resolving such humanitarian issues,” the department noted.

According to the Ukrainian ministry, this step is a blow to the Normandy format and the contact group.

Earlier, representatives of the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics announced their intention to unilaterally transfer a group of detained persons to Kiev.

Medvedchuk was chosen as a mediator in this process.

As the Ombudsman for Human Rights in Ukraine Lyudmila Denisova noted, the transfer of the detained persons to Kiev should take place in the near future.