The swap of prisoners between Ukraine, LNR and DNR was dealt with at the highest political level. The leader of the political organization Ukrainian Choice Viktor Medvedchuk asked Vladimir Putin to participate in the process. Ivan Belyaev will share more details.
He didn't lay it on the shelf. Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with the heads of DNR and LNR. The representative of Ukraine asked the Russian President to contact with Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky personally.
"Use your authority and help to resume the exchange of prisoners between Kiev, Donetsk, and Lugansk". With these words, Victor Medvedchuk addressed Putin during the visit to the New Jerusalem Monastery. The leader of the movement Ukrainian Choice has been coordinating the exchange of prisoners since 2014.
He underlined: “14 months have passed since the last exchange took place. Without Russia's assistance, it's impossible to push things along. I want to ask you to use your authority, to demonstrate humanism and address the heads of the unrecognized republics Mr. Zakharchenko and Mr. Plotnitsky to conduct this swap as the first stage of the exchange of all the prisoners. To free the referred persons. I think that 380 men could return home to their relatives, friends, and families I think it would be a very serious step in the implementation of the Minsk agreements and peace issues in Donbass”.
Vladimir Putin: “I'll do everything that depends on me. I'll talk to the leaders of the Donetsk Republic and the Lugansk Republic. I hope that what you're proposing will be implemented as soon as possible. Thank you so much”.
Victor Medvedchuk: “Thank you so much”.
The self-proclaimed republics declare that they’re ready for an exchange of all the prisoners but Ukraine itself is dragging out the process.
Ukraine is awaiting the return of 74 captured soldiers and officers of the UAF. In exchange, they promise to release 306 inhabitants of the LNR and DNR. But even by such a proportion, the exchange of all the prisoners is impossible. At least 444 militiamen are officially confirmed.
According to Medvedchuk, Ukraine can't free everyone because of the current legislation. Those who committed particularly serious crimes, cannot be exchanged.
onbass, this reason is considered to be far-fetched.
Daria Morozova, Commissioner for Human Rights in DNR: "There were precedents when they exchanged prisoners, who committed serious crimes. For example, a year ago there was a gesture of goodwill from Ukraine, they let 15 people go, all of them before were either convicted or accused of especially serious crimes. There's a catch. I'd like to remind of the presumption of innocence. We can't say that these people committed serious crimes unless they're convicted".
Hundreds of people related to self-proclaimed republics are held in Ukrainian prisons. And they're not only soldiers but ordinary people, whom Kiev accused, for example, of separatism. Neither relatives nor human rights activists can get to them. Furthermore, Kiev overreached itself trying to cheat during exchanges. Soldiers were exchanged for ordinary people, arrested for far-fetched reasons.
One of the largest exchanges took place on December 26, 2014. To free 222 soldiers, the SSU officers literally caught the inhabitants of Donbass in the streets. Finally, they managed to bring 150 people.
Vladislav Deynego, acting Foreign Minister of LNR: "Kiev shelved this issue all the time. They referred to the mentioned reasons that they cannot exchange all the prisoners because of the legislation. Probably, Mr. Medvedchuk made sure that he couldn't solve this issue in Ukraine and reached out to the Russian Federation".
Unfortunately, the conflict is not over yet. Ukraine keeps detaining new people. In order to abide by the rules of the total exchange. it will have to be done step-by-step The exchange of prisoners is one of the key conditions of the Minsk agreements. It is constantly discussed in the "Normandy format".
But in recent months, this process has stalled.
According to the press service of the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin supports the initiative of Viktor Medvedchuk to conduct a large-scale exchange of prisoners. Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, in turn, declare that now the main thing is to agree on this with Ukraine. And if there are no problems, at least 380 prisoners on both sides will have a chance to meet the next New Year at home.
Ivan Belyaev, Maksim Seleznev Vesti
