The prisoner exchange in the "all for all" format is hardly possible before the end of the year, an ombudswoman of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Darya Morozova said in a statement on Thursday, TASS reported.
The prisoner exchange in the "all for all" format is hardly possible before the end of the year, an ombudswoman of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Darya Morozova said in a statement on Thursday, TASS reported.
According to her words the Ukrainian side is not ready to cease criminal proceedings and hold an amnesty, as well as to carry out an exchange of military in the format set in the Minsk memorandum.
"That is why, we can hardly expect an exchange of military in the ‘all for all’ format happening before the New Year," Morozova said.
She insists that the Ukrainian side was fully ignoring the Package of Measures for the implementation of the Minsk accords of February 12: "At each meeting in Minsk I am putting emphasis on a need to urgently pass a law on amnesty and stop persecutions of active participants of the events in Donbass".
"About a dozen people go missing weekly on the territory controlled by the Ukrainian authorities", Morozova pays attention.
She also said the DPR was ready to implement the Minsk-2 agreements: "We are ready to meet the agreements, but taking into consideration the above facts, the date and terms of a swap, as well as an amnesty depend on the Ukrainian side".
Remember that this year’s last meeting of negotiators in the settling of the conflict in Donbas took place in Minsk on Decemder 22. The main issue on the agenda was the report of the humanitarian team on releasing the hostages. The security team heard the report of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of Parties on the ceasefire regime. The format of the negotiations in 2016 will be decided by the Normandy Four, Day.kiev notes.
The Minsk 2 agreements were reached in the Belarussian capital in February after the collapse of a cease-fire agreed earlier.
The Package of Measures, known as Minsk-2, envisaged a ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias in the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Lugansk starting from February 15 and subsequent withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of engagement. The deal also laid out a roadmap for a lasting settlement in Ukraine, including local elections and constitutional reform to give more autonomy to the war-torn eastern regions. In line with an agreement reached in Minsk at a meeting of the Contact Group on settling the situation in east Ukraine, a complete ceasefire was established from September 1 at the contact line in Donbass. Still, the DPR and LPR (self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic) regularly register increasing instances of shelling from the positions of pro-Kiev armed units. Under the Package of Measures to implement the Minsk agreements (Minsk-2) adopted on February 12, 2015, 100 mm artillery guns and weapons of larger calibre are to be pulled out to a distance of 50 kilometres from each other; MRLS - to 70 km; MRLS Tornado, Uragan and Smerch as well as the Tochka tactical operational missile complex to 140 km, TASS reminds.
