Kiev Wants to Swap Savchenko, Sentsov Under Prisoner Exchange Deal

Updated 3:15 p.m. Moscow time

KIEV, September 10 (RIA Novosti) – The Kiev government has put Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko and filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, detained in Russia earlier this year, on its list of captives to be released under the “all-for-all” swap deal with independence supporters agreed in Minsk last week, the head of Ukraine’s security service SBU said Wednesday.

Valentyn Nalyvaichenko told reporters that Savchenko and Sentsov “are on the list of citizens that must be returned.”

On Monday, Amnesty International’s Secretary General Salil Shetty met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Yatsenyuk asked for Shetty’s assistance in releasing Sentsov and Savchenko.

Nadezhda Savchenko is accused of being involved in a mortar attack that killed two Russian journalists in June. Oleh Sentsov is suspected of plotting terror attacks in Crimea.

On September 5, the Contact Group on Ukrainian reconciliation, involving representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) met in Belarus’ capital Minsk to find ways to the solution of the Ukrainian crisis.

Kiev authorities and self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics signed a deal to declare a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine starting at 15:00 GMT on the same day. The sides also agreed on an “all to all” prisoner exchange.