Statement by Daria Morozova on the eve of Minsk meeting

Comments and statements of the Ombudsman

At the next meeting in Minsk, which is scheduled for 18.04.18, the exchange of prisoners in the “all confirmed for all confirmed” format will be the main issue of the agenda of the humanitarian subgroup. For our part, we hope that the Ukrainian leadership has finally agreed on their official position on the exchange of prisoners. I want to remind that our position remains unchanged – we demand to release all persons whose presence on the territory of Ukraine has been officially confirmed.

Also, we will raise issues that remained open after the exchange of December 27, namely the return of identity documents and medical records, as well as obtaining official information on the legal status of persons transferred to the territory of the Republic as a result of the exchange. We want to receive official confirmation that criminal proceedings against released persons have been closed. We will demand Ukraine representatives to terminate criminal prosecution against the participants of the previous exchange, as well as to release the rest of the detainees, who stayed in the territory of Ukraine and against whom criminal proceedings have been initiated.

The Donetsk People’s Republic has long been ready for the second stage of the exchange. Therefore, I invite the representatives of Ukraine not to protract this process, but to facilitate the early exchange of all detainees by both sides.

Another issue of the agenda will be missing persons. I remind you once again that all the negotiations of the humanitarian subgroup regarding the mechanism for the search and identification of missing persons have been blocked due to ungrounded demands of the Ukrainian side.

I hope that the position of Ukrainian official representatives will be constructive at the tomorrow’s meeting.