Ukraine creates new obstacles to the exchange of prisoners with Donbas militants. This was stated by Foreign Minister of Russia Sergei Lavrov, TASS reports.
"In Paris, they called on the contact group to agree on lists for the exchange od all established persons. The goal was to exchange "all-for-all", but when they compared the lists all these years, it turned out that not all prisoners were mutually confirmed ... Now a new criterion appeared in the contact group: the established persons - ok, but they are not all “procedurally cleaned.” This means a new obstacle for people to return home before Christmas and the New Year,” the Russian Foreign Minister noted.
Recall that earlier the media reported that the exchange of prisoners is hindered by the refusal of some detainees to return to occupied Donbas.
According to one of the sources of the agency, about 40 people, included in the exchange list, refused to participate in the swap and return to the occupied territory of Donbas.
The interlocutor did not name all reasons for the refusals, he noted that there are people who did not want to return to areas of Donbas uncontrolled by Kyiv and there are people who want to serve the punishment and close the issue of the criminal prosecution in Ukraine.
‘Tough demand of Luhansk’ to legally ‘clear’ from criminal proceedings all people who should be exchanged became one of the reasons that on December 18, at the session of the Trilateral Contact Group, the sides failed to agree on the holding of ‘great exchange’ until the end of the year.
