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Ukraine's Lugansk republic confirms 3 militiamen captured by Kiev forces

LUGANSK, July 13. /TASS/. Three militiamen of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) were captured by Ukrainian forces, and one of them later died in captivity, the LPR militia said on Wednesday.

"We see that our concerns are confirmed, and Ukrainian commanders conduct prevocational shellings of settlements with the aim of disrupting the Minsk Agreements and elections in the republic," Lugansk Inform Center quoted LPR people’s militia as saying. "To carry out their plans, Ukrainian servicemen also launched actions on capturing LPR militiamen as prisoners of war. An example of that is the incident with three militiamen near Debaltsevo, one of whom has died," the people’s militia added.

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LPR also noted that two militiamen left alive were subjected to torture. "This can be seen on the video uploaded on the internet, where an officer of LPR people’s militia Lt. Sedikov accused republic’s military leadership of insufficient maintenance and deceit of servicemen and urges to flee LPR, under pressure from Ukraine’s representatives," the people’s militia said.

On July Ukrainian General Staff said that Kiev forces captured three militiamen in Donbass.

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 Pyotr 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.

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