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Donbas reports another 20 missing or detained within week — official

Earlier, human rights ombudsperson of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said Ukraine was keeping 1,200 prisoners

MOSCOW, October 5. /TASS/. 20 people got missing or were detained illegally by the Ukrainian military between September 26 and October 2, human rights ombudsperson of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Daria Moroz said in a weekly report.

"Between September 26 and October 2, 2015, we registered 20 people - missing or illegally detained, where nine are civilians and eleven are DPR’s military," the Donetsk News Agency quoted her.

The document reads that currently "the Ukrainian side is detaining 458 military, 563 are political prisoners and 199 civilians having nothing to do with the conflict."

"Another 403 people are missing," the report reads. "They may be prisoners in Ukraine."

Earlier, the ombudsperson said Ukraine was keeping 1,200 prisoners. During the official exchange of prisoners, DPR and the Luhansk republic gave to Kiev 317 prisoners and the Ukrainian side released 287 people.

The "all-for-all" exchange of prisoners is a key item of the Minsk agreements.

The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising senior representatives from Russia, Ukraine and the European security watchdog OSCE on February 12, 2015, signed a 13-point Package of Measures to fulfil the September 2014 Minsk agreements. The package was agreed with the leaders of the Normandy Four, namely Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine.

The Package of Measures, known as Minsk-2, envisaged a ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias in the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Luhansk. The deal also laid out a roadmap for a lasting settlement in Ukraine, including local elections and constitutional reform to give more autonomy to the war-torn eastern regions, as well as pardon and amnesty to adopting a law banning punishments for deeds related to the events in Donbas.