DONETSK, September 7 (RIA Novosti) – Several hundred captive Ukrainian military and the National Guard personnel will be transferred from the city of Donetsk on Saturday night, according to the Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).
“A bus convoy carrying several hundreds of prisoners will leave Donetsk at night, at 4 a.m. [1:00 GMT]. The process will be under the auspices of the Red Cross and OSCE,” a representative from the ministry told RIA Novosti late Saturday.
Earlier in the day, DPR’s Prime Minister Aleksander Zakharchenko told reporters that the transfer of captives from the Donetsk People’s Republic to Kiev will begin on Saturday, while Kiev is expected to transfer prisoners back to militia on Monday.
On Friday, the members of the Contact Group on Ukrainian reconciliation met in Belarus’ capital Minsk to find ways to resolve the Ukrainian crisis. Kiev authorities and self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics agreed to “all to all” prisoners of war exchange, military hardware withdrawal and humanitarian aid access to the combat zone. The ceasefire agreement came into force at 15:00 GMT the same day.
