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Kyiv, Russia-Backed Separatists Prepare For Prisoner Swap

RFE/RL December 27, 2017

Russian media reports say that Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine have sent captured Ukrainian soldiers to the site of a planned prisoner exchange between the separatists and Kyiv.

The separatists were due to hand over captive Ukrainian government soldiers near Horlivka on the front lines of the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region at 1100 GMT on December 27.

From there, the freed soldiers are to be flown by helicopter to Kharkiv, a government-controlled regional capital further northwest.

Ukrainian government forces were to hand over prisoners to the separatists in the evening.

Ukrainian authorities and separatists on December 25 confirmed that a deal for the exchange had been reached.

Iryna Herashchenko, first deputy speaker of parliament, said that "74 Ukrainians will be released [by the separatists] on December 27. We will exchange them for 306 people."

The leader of the separatists in the Donetsk region, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, also has said the swap would take place "under the 306-for-74 formula."

On December 26, Zakharchenko said the swap is only the first stage of possible further moves to exchange captives. He said more lists of prisoners were being compiled.

Herashchenko previously said that Kyiv has long been ready "to hand over all of those who can be released under Ukrainian laws in order to take confirmed Ukrainians in exchange."

Herashchenko is Ukraine's representative for the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), which consists of Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Fighting between Kyiv's forces and the Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which border Russia southeast of Kharkiv, has killed more than 10,300 people since April 2014.

Under a February 2015 cease-fire and peace deal known as Minsk-2, Kyiv and the separatists were supposed to "release and exchange...all hostages and unlawfully detained persons" within five days of its signing.

But that did not happen, and there have been no prisoner swaps between Kyiv and the separatists for 15 months.

Shortly before the planned exchange on December 27, Ukraine's military said that one of its soldiers had been killed and five wounded during the previous 24 hours in the east.

A Defense Ministry statement said that Russia-backed separatists violated the frequently breached cease-fire six times using assault rifles, machine guns, and mortars.

According to the ministry, separatist fighters used a drone to coordinate mortar attacks -- a practice that is banned under the Minsk accords of 2014 and 2015 that are aimed at resolving the conflict.

Separatists said on December 27 that Ukrainian government forces attacked the village of Kalynivka in the Luhansk region overnight using assault rifles, grenade launchers, mortars, and heavy artillery.

After massive protests pushed Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych from power in February 2014 following his decision to scrap a landmark deal with the European Union, Russia seized control of Ukraine's Crimea region and fomented separatism across eastern and southern Ukraine. The Russia-backed separatists seized parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, igniting the war and severely straining Russia's relations with Kyiv and the West.

Implementation of the Minsk-2 agreement has been slow and several other aspects of the deal appear far from being fulfilled. Western officials and rights groups have voiced concern about flare-ups in recent weeks, with European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini saying the humanitarian and security situation had "deteriorated abruptly" of late.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Interfax, Unian, and AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russia -prisoner-swap/28941084.html

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Kyiv, Russia-Backed Separatists Prepare For Prisoner Swap