On June 26, 2012 Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Kostyantyn Gryshchenko has met with family members of Ukrainian citizens detained in Libya.

At the meeting the Minister has informed that the issue of bringing back the Ukrainians from Libya as soon as possible is supervised by the President of Ukraine personally. The President, the Government, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in particular are making every effort to resolve the difficult situation that our fellow citizens had gotten into in Libya, he said. According to him, the issue has been repeatedly brought up by the Ukrainian side during foreign visits, including to the Middle East, and in the correspondence with world leaders to enlist their support and potential in protecting the interests of the citizens of Ukraine.

The Minister noted that on June 20, with the support of the Embassy of Ukraine in Libya, the Office of Public Defenders of Tripoli had appealed 10-year sentences to 19 Ukrainians. The attorney fees had been paid by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, he said, adding that the diplomats at the Embassy of Ukraine in Libya regularly visit our fellow citizens, bring them food, necessities, a phone to talk to their families.

Kostyantyn Gryshchenko expressed his empathy and support towards the families of the Ukrainians detained in Libya, and assured them all the Ukrainian diplomats and he himself are sincerely concerned for the fate of our fellow countrymen in this difficult situation and take all possible steps to bring them back home.

The family members of the Ukrainians detained in Libya thanked the Minister and the whole Ukrainian government for their assistance and attention to the problem, as well as for the assistance that Ukrainian diplomats provide to their relatives in Libya.