In response to the abovementioned letter from the Commissioner, on 16 February 2015, the Prime Minister of Ukraine instructed the leadership of Donetsk and Luhansk State Regional Administrations, the Ministry of Social Policy, the Ministry of Education and Science, and the State Emergency Service to undertake relevant response. In addition, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine received an instruction for redistribution of funding. Penitentiary institutions There are 27 facilities on the territory temporarily outside of control of Ukrainian government: In Donetsk region – 14 facilities with approximately 8.7 thousand persons in custody thereof; In Luhansk – 14 facilities (3 demolished) with approximately 4 thousand persons in custody thereof. In addition, there are 47 units of criminal executive inspection in the anti-terrorist operation zone. Visits to Starobilsk remand prison in Luhansk region and Artemivsk and Mariupol remand prison in Donetsk region revealed a number of problems. In particular, there are breaches of the Law of Ukraine “On delivery of justice and criminal proceedings in relation to the anti-terrorist operation” dated 12.08.2014 and an instruction by the Higher Specialized Court of Ukraine for Civil and Criminal Cases #27/0/3814 dated 02.09.2014 on amendments to territorial jurisdiction of criminal proceedings (cases) of detainees and their transfer from the courts of appeal of Donetsk and Luhansk regions to courts of appeal of Zaporizhzhya and Kharkiv regions accordingly. The breach leads to arbitrary increase in length of detention and violates their right to access to justice. In particular, this situation affects persons in relation to whom criminal proceedings have been transferred to court and are conducted under the 1961 Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine (there are approximately 200 persons who became hostages of these violations). There are also systemic violations towards persons in detention who are not able to take part in court hearings due to the lack of convoy to courts and court decisions on extension of detention in their absence in violation of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. Monitoring visits showed that the lack of convoy to correctional colonies for serving the punishment following the convictions’ entry into force led to continued detention in remand prisons beyond legally established time limits. For instance, during the visit to Mariupol remand prison, it was established that the issue of transfer of 161 convicts to correctional colonies was not solved for a long period, and only 48 convicted persons were transferred to penitentiary facilities. We should emphasize that the situation of penitentiary facilities on the uncontrolled territory is critical. The state funding for their functioning has been practically unwound. For a long period, the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine has not been solving the issue of centralized food supply to these facilities. For instance, at the time of monitoring visit, supplies of potatoes, cabbage, beetroots, carrots and onions in Artemivsk remand prison constituted 20% of the need, and the facility’s debt for food products constituted over 70 thousand hryvnia. The situation with medical and water supplies was the same. 21