LUHANSK, December 25 (Sputnik) – The Kiev government and the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk have agreed on a prisoner exchange scheme under which a total of 375 people will be swapped, the Luhansk leader said Thursday.
“There is an agreement concerning [the exchange of] prisoners of war – 225 from the Ukrainian side and 150 from our side. All other issues are still being negotiated,” Luhansk leader Igor Plotnitsky said, adding that the swap may take place this weekend.
Minutes after the announcement, a spokesperson for the Security Service of Ukraine, Olena Hitlianska, confirmed that Kiev was ready for an “all-for-all” exchange of captives.
19 December 2014, 08:32 GMT
A prisoner exchange was agreed on between Kiev and independence supporters in a Contact Group meeting mediated by Russia and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Minsk on September 19. Since the agreement, several prisoner exchanges between Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics have taken place. The last exchange of this kind took place in November.
The latest round of reconciliation negotiations of the Contact Group took place in Minsk Wednesday.
