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UN human rights mission probing into mass detentions in Kiev-controlled Donbas settlements

Ukrainian law enforcers detained about 100 people in a special operation in the Donetsk region

MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. The United Nations human rights mission has launched a probe into reports about mass arrests of people living in Donbas settlements controlled by Kiev, Dmitry Popov, an official of the office of the human rights ombudsperson of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said on Monday.

"DPR human rights ombudsperson Darya Morozova has already reacted to mass arrests by Ukrainian security services in front-line settlements located on temporarily occupied territories. Information on these reports has been referred to the United Nations human rights mission and observers have already launched a probe," the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying.

Yuri Tandit, an advisor to the head of the country’s Security Service (SBU) said earlier on Monday that Ukrainian law enforcers had detained about 100 people in a special operation in the Donetsk region. "Three detained residents of Avdeyevka [north of Donetsk] are suspected of participation in illegal activity as part of a reconnaissance and sabotage groups and another one is suspected of cooperating with foreign special services," he said. Later in the day, most of those detained were released.

Ukraine’s Security Service earlier announced that mass detentions had been carried out in the Donetsk region’s Krasnogorovsk (west of Donetsk). A total of 85 people have been held for alleged links to activity of the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine.