Comment from Daria Morozova following videoconference of 11 March

Comments and statements of the Ombudsman News

Another round of negotiations of the Humanitarian Subgroup of the Contact Group on the conflict settlement in Donbas has finished. The Donetsk People’s Republic, in keeping with the spirit of the Minsk Agreements, confirmed the detention of 15 people requested by the Ukrainian side.

At the same time, so far Ukraine has not completed procedural clearance of persons released and transferred to the DPR in December 2019. As a response to multiple requests from DPR Ombudsman, Kiev said that the dismissal of criminal persecution is pending consideration by the Prosecutor-General of Ukraine which has not made any decisions by now. Such a practice seriously complicates the release of the rest of detainees on both sides of the conflict. We therefore urge the Ukrainian side to follow the agreements reached at the videoconference of 23 December 2019 and fulfil their commitments to unblock further prisoner exchanges.

In addition, the Ukrainian side failed to provide information on missing persons. I would like to highlight that the Donetsk People’s Republic is fully ready to facilitate constructive dialogue and progress in the prisoner exchange.