The DPR and LPR are ready to exchange prisoners and hope that during negotiations in Minsk, they’ll be able to agree on this issue. If nothing goes wrong, we can talk about the most massive exchange of prisoners in the history of the conflict. It became possible after Ukrainian politician Medvedchuk asked for Vladimir Putin’s help.
Alexander Bilibov reporting from Donetsk.
"Hello, son. It’s your mother. How are you? How is your health?" Alexander received a letter from his mother a few days ago. The Ukrainian soldier has been imprisoned for two years. During this time, as he says, he has reconsidered many things. After the exchange, he’ll go to work at a plant. They’re already waiting for him.
Alexander the Ukrainian soldier: "I want to return home alive, because my parents are waiting for me, first of all. I’m not thinking about myself, I’m thinking about my parents. I was stupid".
One of the Donetsk prisons. Now, there are 34 prisoners of war here. The conditions they are kept in are the same as for usual prisoners. Three meals a day, two hours a day of walking and two hours of watching TV, sauna is once a week.
There’re three people in one cell. There is a wash basin, a toilet, everyone has their own dishes. The prisoners of war spend their time here reading.
A prisoner:
- Books are brought from the local library.
- Do you read them?
- Yes, all the time. These are the magazines that volunteers and family send us.
We don’t know in what conditions those who were captured in Ukraine are waiting for the exchange. But those who have already returned from there, tell terrible things.
Vladimir Olefir, former prisoner: "Everyone would beat me. They also tried to drown me in the water, they shot, they tried to cut something off with an angle grinder".
Now, hundreds of DPR and LPR citizens are in the SBU's dungeons. The fate of the forthcoming exchange will be decided in Minsk. A roadmap will be presented at the meeting of the contact group, the date of exchange will be determined, and the lists of prisoners of war on both sides will be approved.
Darya Morozova, human-rights ombudsman in the DPR: "From our side, all steps have been taken, we also sent the lists to the Ukrainian side".
Meanwhile, the situation on the demarcation line is still extremely unstable. It’s become a tradition that before each regular meeting in Minsk, the Armed Forces of Ukraine increase the number of provocations.
Eduard Basurin, Ministry of Defense official representative: "The shelling continues. Mainly in the Donetsk direction. This is the west and the airport area, the so-called Promka and Avdeevka, and also in the south and in Gorlovka, recently it didn't worry us a lot. But now, there is a very serious tension".
A week ago, the Armed Forces of Ukraine attempted a breakthrough on the so-called Svetlodar arc. The offensive was repulsed, but the Ukrainian military still occupied two villages in the neutral zone. At the same time, they suffered heavy losses. There are those who were captured. Roman is one of them. The Ukrainian soldier was wounded and now, like the others, he is also waiting for the exchange in the Luhansk hospital under the supervision of doctors.
Alexander Bilibov, Dmitry Vishkevich, Yevgeny Tarasov, Andrei Rudenko, and Oleg Bondarenko, Vesti, Donbass.
