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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Kiev accused of disrupting prisoner swap agreements

Every time a Ukrainian prisoners-of-war was brought to an appointed place where the exchange was to take place, the Kiev side refused to implement the agreements without providing any explanations

© TASS/Taras Dudnik

MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. The Ukrainian side has disrupted the prisoner exchange process three times within the past four weeks, an official in the militia of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) told a press briefing at LuganskInformTsentr.

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"We have repeatedly made efforts to release our military servicemen from captivity. We handed over to the Ukrainian side the list of Ukrainian prisoners-of-war with the suggestions on prisoner exchanges three times within the past four weeks. However, all our initiatives face hurdles, which leads to the disruption of the prisoner swap process," Colonel Igor Yashchenko said.

He noted that every time a Ukrainian prisoners-of-war was brought to an appointed place where the exchange was to take place, the Ukrainian side refused to implement the agreements without providing any explanations. The latest unsuccessful attempt to exchange prisoners was made on August 17.

"One gets the impression that the Ukrainian authorities care little about the fate of Ukrainian prisoners-of-war and that they are engaged in some obscure game causing a delay in the exchange process," the colonel said.

He added that prisoner swap attempts would continue in spite of everything.

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Eastern Ukraine

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