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Kremlin: Different approaches obstruct ‘all-for-all’ prisoner exchange in Donbass

The last and the biggest Donbass prisoner swap took place on December 27, 2017

MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. Russia stands for the ‘all-for-all’ format of exchanging prisoners of war (POWs) in Donbass, but the sides keep displaying different approaches to this process, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

"I would like to reiterate the Russian president’s earlier statement that Russia has been long backing this process [‘all-for-all’ exchange], and in this case it all comes to a halt due to different approaches to what the ‘all-for-all’ process actually means," Peskov said.

"Unfortunately, nuances remain regarding the approaches," Peskov added, but did not specify the nature of the so-called ‘nuances.’

The prisoner swap issue remains one of the key points of the Minsk agreements. The last and biggest Donbass prisoner swap took place on December 27, 2017. Kiev handed over 233 prisoners to the Donbass republics and received 73 prisoners in return.

Both parties stressed that the prisoner exchange process had not been completed and they were determined to do everything possible to continue it in 2018.