Representatives of the Donetsk People’s Republic will discuss conducting of an earliest exchange of prisoners with the Ukrainian side at the next meeting of the humanitarian subgroup in Minsk, as announced today by the Human Rights Ombudsman Daria Morozova.
“We are ready for the exchange and we call upon to hold it in the very near future. I think that on June 7 (at the regular meeting in Minsk – DAN comments) we will certainly raise this issue. We will talk with the Ukrainian side in this perspective, and insist that the exchange should be performed as soon as possible”, – the Ombudsman said.
Morozova clarified that the exchange of prisoners is impossible unless the verification process is complete. At the same time, the Ombudsman reminded that verification has not been completed, despite Kyiv’s statements.
“The Ukrainian side insists that verification is already complete. In fact it is not. There were 73 people on our list. Three people did not answer the phone, 10 people were interviewed by telephone, and eight have allegedly been released. But the certificates of release, which I received in Minsk, are of totally different models. Not in a unified established form, completely different. I returned them for revision”.
The Ombudsman also expressed her hope for the influence of the Normandy format towards Kiev in the issue of the exchange of prisoners.
We recall that the DPR representatives insisted on resuming of the verification process and its completion at the meetings of the humanitarian subgroup in Minsk that were previously interrupted by the Ukrainian side. According to Morozova, this would have helped perform the exchange of prisoners under the “all for all” formula before the end of May, although the official representatives of the Ukrainian side still insist that Kiev has fully completed the procedure.
