BERLIN (Sputnik) — Participants of Normandy format ministerial meeting on Ukraine conflict in Minsk reached an agreement on the access of the Red Cross officials to prisons in Donbass and the exchange of prisoners between Donbass militia and the Ukrainian army before December 24, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday.
"We have now agreed for the first time on the access of the International Red Cross [officials] to prisons in Donbass region as well as … to carry out a major exchange of prisoners before Christmas between so- called Donbas separatists, on one side, and the Ukrainian army, on the other side," Steinmeier said.