MINSK, August 26 (RIA Novosti) – Participants of the Customs Union-Ukraine-EU meeting in the Belarusian capital Minsk differ in their approaches to the Ukrainian conflict, but all of them agree that all captives should be released, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Tuesday.
“The sides have different attitude to the Ukrainian conflict, sometimes dramatically different. But it is important that everybody agrees that a compromise is needed. Everybody agrees that de-escalation is needed and hostages should be released,” Lukashenko told reporters after the meeting.
A great number of people have gone missing in Ukraine since the conflict erupted in the country’s eastern regions. Earlier in the month, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that about 1,000 people are being held captive by the militia in eastern Ukraine, including both war prisoners and civilians.
Authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic announced in their turn that about the same number of independence supporters are unaccounted for, another 300 are considered to have been captured by government forces.
According to the DPR representative, the prisoner swap continues.
