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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Kiev confirms militias’ setting free 2,852 people

The number includes 1,018 military, 37 volunteers, 257 national guards, 25 border guards, 100 police officers and more than 1,300 civilians

© Mikhail Sokolov/TASS

KIEV, August 17./TASS/. Kiev’s representative in the subgroup for humanitarian issues ofthe Contact Group for the Ukrainian settlement confirmed on Monday that in a prisoner swap with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, militias had set free 2,852 people and 171 people remained in captivity.

"As of today, 2,852 Ukrainians have been set free, including 1,018 military, 37 volunteers, 257 national guards, 25 border guards, 100 police officers and more than 1,300 civilians," Irina Gerashchenko wrote on her Facebook page, adding that there were medics and journalists among them.

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She said 171 people, including more than 50 civilians, remained in captivity. Gerashchenko also said that 846 people remained unaccounted for. She said she was quoting data of the Ukrainian Security Service, noting that its information was "official and the most complete".

Earlier, the human rights commissioner of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Darya Morozova, said the Ukrainian side held 1,213 captives.

"These are the people whose fate has been ascertained, while more than 400 people remain unaccounted for," the Donetsk News Agency quoted Darya Morozova as saying last week.

"We are now engaged in negotiations on their exchange, including at talks in Minsk. We are waiting for Kiev to pass the law On Amnesty to proceed from the stage of negotiations to practical moves," the ombudsperson of the troubled region in eastern Ukraine said.

The "all for all" prisoner swap is one of the key points in the Package of Measures on implementation of the September 2014 Minsk agreements, signed in Minsk on February 12.

The package in particular included an agreement on cessation of fire from February 15, withdrawal of heavy armaments, as well as measures on long-term political settlement of the situation in Ukraine, including establishment of working subgroups as priority tasks.

The subgroups focus on four areas: economic issues and restoration of facilities; refugees, internally displaced persons and humanitarian assistance; political issues; security issues.

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Eastern Ukraine

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