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Donbass holds no prisoner swap talks with Savchenko — DPR rights envoy

The DPR envoy stresses Savchenko is not officially authorized to negotiate the exchange of prisoners

© AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov, file

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Savchenko sends letter to Poroshenko urging to speed up release of POWs in Donbass

DONETSK, August 8. /TASS/. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) held no negotiations on prisoner exchange with former Ukrainian pilot and currently Verkhovna Rada member Nadezhda Savchenko, DPR human rights commissioner Darya Morozova has said.

"I held no talks with Nadezhda Savchenko. Let me emphasize that she is not officially authorized to negotiate the exchange of prisoners," Morozova’s press service quotes her as saying.

Earlier on Monday, Savchenko said there was an agreement on the "two for two" exchange and urged Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko to take immediate action.

According to Morozova, 966 people are held in custody by the Ukrainian side, among them 318 military service members, 454 persons detained for political reasons and 154 people unrelated to the conflict in the Donbass region. For her part, Kiev’s envoy to the humanitarian subgroup Irina Gerashchenko said 107 people are held captive in the Donbass region.

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North Korea tests multiple rocket launchers produced at new defense enterprise

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