KIEV, February 13. /TASS/. Russia called on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to persistently demand that Ukraine fulfills its obligations on freeing persons detained by the sides in the Donbass conflict, Russia's envoy to the Contact Group on settlement in eastern Ukraine Boris Gryzlov said on Wednesday.

"The Russian delegation called on the OSCE to be more persistent in demanding that Kiev fulfill its commitments to free detained persons and swap prisoners on the 'all for all' basis. We think that violating these commitements seriously hampers the settlement of the situation and implementation of humanitarian tasks of the Minsk process," Gryzlov said.

He added that Kiev still refuses to establish direct contacts with representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) and sabotages the implementation of the law on Donbass special status. "In the political subgroup, Kiev does not want to hold dialogue with representatives of Donetsk and Lugansk. Kiev continues to sabotage the discussion about implementing the law on Donbass special status by the Steinmeier formula despite attempts of OSCE's coordinator Mr Morel to restart the subgroup's work," Gryzlov noted.