I have to say with regret that another negotiations round of the Humanitarian Subgroup of the Contact Group on the settlement of the conflict held on 29 September hasn’t yielded positive outcomes. Ukraine, ignoring appeals of the coordinator and multiple official requests, didn’t provide again any information on the procedural “cleansing” of persons, who were moved to the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic during the exchanges in 2019-2020. This issue namely is a key one for the Humanitarian Subgroup.
From December of the past year, Kiev is evading its responsibilities on the procedural “cleansing” in every possible way. Today, therefore, the status of 50 persons that were moved to the DPR during the exchanges on 29 December 2019 and 16 April 2020 remains in question. That is Kiev, despite all agreements, actually continues the criminal prosecution of these citizens. Moreover, Ukraine doesn’t take the necessary steps to settle this issue.
It should be reminded that the reciprocal responsibilities of the DPR and Ukraine on the procedural “cleansing” of participants of the exchanges are enshrined in the Protocols on the outcomes of the Contact Group session. In addition, the fact that the process of exchange will be considered as completed only when all parties fulfill their commitments is indicated in the Protocols. The DPR fulfilled its obligations, but Kiev didn’t do. Thus, because of the destructive attitude of Ukraine, the aforementioned exchanges of 2019-2020 are still considered as uncompleted, that makes the discussion on the preparation of the new phases of the exchange more difficult, to put it mildly.
My position is straightforward: to finish all past exchanges as soon as possible and to work towards the implementation of the next ones.
