On August 21-22 the Trilateral Contact Group will meet in Minsk. The group will mainly discuss the hostages and political prisoners, as Iryna Gerashchenko, First Vice-Speaker of Ukraine’s Parliament, wrote on Facebook, commenting on the rally near the President’s Administration conducted today by the relatives of the Ukrainian military servicemen kept by the militants.
“I understand the concern of the soldiers’ relatives. Minsk humanitarian group has to operate more effectively and everyone who works there should make all efforts for the release. We are ready to make a compromise, within a month we have made a few proposals, unfortunately, Russia and ORDLO (Separated Districts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions, - ed.) rejected all of them. They have a destructive position of “all the defined for all the defined”, confirming less than 30 of ours, demanding almost 300, Russians, Berkut officers, etc. are among them,” Gerashchenko stated.
Earlier, on December 27, 2017 a hostage exchange took place in Donbas. Ukraine exchanges 233 detainees for 73 Ukrainian hostages.