DONETSK, December 26. /TASS/. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Ukrainian authorities will exchange prisoners on a “225 for 150” basis on Friday evening, DPR Commissioner for Human Rights Darya Morozova said on Friday.
“Prisoners will be exchanged by the formula: 225 Donetsk people for 150 Ukrainians,” she said.
“In compliance with our lists, Kiev will exchange only 55 people. We don’t know who the rest of 175 prisoners are,” Morozova said.
On December 25, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Alexander Zakharchenko said the participants in the meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine had reached agreement on the prisoner swap.
“The Minsk talks continue, but it is early to talk about any agreements. The only thing I can say that we succeeded in reaching agreement on the exchange of prisoners on the ‘all for all’ basis - 150 for 225,” he said.
The prisoner exchange became one of the key issues of the Contact Group agreements reached in Minsk on September 5. Since September 12 the parties have exchanged several hundreds of prisoners.