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DPR negotiator accuses Kiev of blocking prisoner exchange process

Denis Pushilin once again earlier said that the prisoner exchange process was delayed due to chenges in the lists that had been submitted by the DPR human rights commissioner

© Mikhail Sokolov/TASS, archive

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Lavrov: Normandy Four prepare concrete security proposals for Ukraine Contact Group

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. The Ukrainian side continues to block the process of prisoner exchange with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, the DPR chief negotiator at the Minsk talks, said on Friday.

"We insist that the exchange should be made as soon as possible. Ukraine has been braking this process. The work of the humanitarian subgroup continues. The work is underway with the lists and specifications to the lists, our lists have long been submitted. The ‘25 for 50’ proposal remains in force, but we seek to get an ‘all for all’ exchange," Pushilin is quoted by the Donetsk News Agency.

Previously, DPR Commissioner for Human Rights Daria Morozova repeatedly said that the DPR delegation in Minsk put forward proposals on the exchange of prisoners with the Ukrainian side according to the ‘25 for 50’ formula. Pushilin once again said on April 21 that the prisoner exchange process was delayed due to changing by the Ukrainian side of the lists that had been submitted by the DPR human rights commissioner. The self-proclaimed republic’s chief negotiator then said again that uncoordinated actions of the authorities in Kiev disrupted the prisoner exchange that had been planned for Easter.

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Moscow regrets Kiev avoids implementation of Minsk Accords — Kremlin

The member of the Contact Group on the settlement of the conflict in the southeast of Ukraine agreed on observing Easter ceasefire starting from April 30. However, the self-proclaimed Donbass republics and Kiev forces continue accusing each other of violating the ceasefire regime in Donbass.

Ceasefire 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 Pyotr Poroshenko. The package of measures also envisages weaponry withdrawal, prisoner exchange, local election in Donbass, constitutional reform in Ukraine and establishing working sub-groups on security, political, economy and humanitarian components of the Minsk accords.

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