Comment of the Ombudsperson on the results of negotiations in Minsk

Comments and statements of the Ombudsman News

The Ukrainian side continues to prevent the enforcement of part 6 of Minsk Agreements, which stipulates that the exchange of hostages must be performed through “all for all” formula, and delays the long-awaited liberation of our men for some unclear reasons. Thus, our side has not yet received any answer to the official proposition on the exchange. Our opponents are performing yet another manipulation  on the lists of illegally detained persons, Ukrainian side rejects to conform the exchange list by only mentioning the number of 642 persons. Thus, we have not received any final or preliminary decision to perform the desired exchange from the authorized representatives of the Ukrainian side. We insist on the earliest resumption of work with our opponents on coordination of the lists.

The issue of checkpoints was also raised on the meeting of humanitarian subgroup. It is no secret, that there is a corruption practice in the checkpoint system. I underlined that the Ukrainian side has to eliminate corruption in their checkpoints, because the pensioners, who have to cross the line of delimitation to get their legally granted pension benefits, can hardly afford those huge bribes, they are being demanded. The Ukrainian representatives have also promised to increase the baggage declared weight to be taken across the line of delimitation. If the Ukrainian representatives are really interested in reducing social tensions, they will keep at least this promise.