Updated 7:05 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, September 14 (RIA Novosti) - Kiev has confirmed that the prisoner swap, which was announced Saturday by the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) officials, is to take place later today, a source with the Donetsk militia told RIA Novosti on Sunday.
"The Ukrainian side has confirmed that the exchange is scheduled for today. The parties will hand over 73 people each," the source confessed.
Earlier today, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Vladimir Polevoy admitted that Donetsk republic's representatives were keeping in touch with Kiev on prisoners.
"Efforts are constantly being made to exchange the detained and the prisoners. Another swap will take place today," he noted.
The upcoming prisoner swap was announced Saturday, when Daria Morozova, the head of DPR's Committee on War Prisoners Exchange, said the conflicting parties were finalizing their lists of captives to be handed over the following day.
It was initially said Kiev and Donetsk were to hand over 65 war prisoners each,
On Friday, DPR self-defense forces also handed over 36 Ukrainian personnel that had been held on the republic's territory during Kiev's military operation in eastern Ukraine. In its turn, the Ukrainian government freed 31 captives.
The swaps follow the groundbreaking ceasefire agreement in Belarus's capital Minsk on September 5 when the sides agreed to exchange all prisoners and open humanitarian corridors. Negotiators were building on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's peace plan for resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine, as well as on Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposals.
