"The French President and the Federal Chancellor called on the parties to take mutual steps on the basis of the work of the humanitarian and economic working groups, with the aim of exchanging the prisoners according to the principle of "all for all" until the end of the year, as stipulated in the Minsk agreements," the statement published by the German Chancellor's office said.
The military conflict in Donbass has been ongoing since 2014 when Kiev launched a military operation against the region's local residents refusing to recognize the new Ukraine’s government which had come to power after what many considered to be coup.
The attempts to settle the crisis were undertaken as part of the Minsk agreements brokered by Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine, which implied the establishment of the ceasefire regime in the eastern Ukrainian region. Despite the agreements, the parties to the conflict still continue mutual accusations of the regime violations.
