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Kiev ready to hand over 50 people in prisoner exchange — official

Kiev has handed over a list of 25 Ukrainians that it expects to receive in exchange

KIEV, April 20. /TASS/. Ukraine is ready to hand over 50 people in the framework of prisoner exchange with Donbass, representative of Contact Group’s humanitarian subgroup, Verkhovna Rada’s First Deputy Speaker Irina Gerschenko said on Wednesday.

"The Ukrainian side is ready to hand over 50 people whom representatives of separate regions of the Donetsk Region are searching for," Geraschenko wrote on her Facebook page after the meeting of the Contact Group.

Kiev has handed over a list of 25 Ukrainians that it expects to receive in exchange.

Prisoner exchange is envisaged by the Minsk accords signed on 12 February 2015, after negotiations in the so-called "Normandy format" in the Belarusian capital Minsk, bringing together Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The package of measures also envisages ceasefire, weaponry withdrawal, local election in Donbass, constitutional reform in Ukraine and establishing working sub-groups on security, political, economy and humanitarian components of the Minsk accords.