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DPR calls on Kiev to complete all-for-all prisoner exchange this year

After a Contact Group meeting in late September, the parties announced that they had reached an agreement on the all-for-all prisoner exchange

DONETSK, December 6. /TASS/. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has called upon the Ukrainian authorities to complete the all-for-all prisoner exchange until the year ends, DPR’s Human Rights Ombudsperson Darya Morozova said on Tuesday.

UKRAINE CRISIS

"I call on Kiev to show mercy not only on the supporters of the Republic jailed in Ukraine, but also on their own people, and to complete the all-for-all prisoner exchange before the holiday season," Morozova’s press service quoted her as saying.

She also said that the prisoner swap was one of the most important issues ahead of the humanitarian subgroup meeting scheduled for December 7 in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. The ombudsperson said she expected Ukraine to stop blocking the prisoner exchange process so that "the deadlock over the talks would be broken."

"I would like to emphasize that the DPR is ready to implement this provision but our counterparts each time delay the process. Everything depends on Ukraine’s goodwill," Morozova said.

After a Contact Group meeting in late September, the parties announced that they had reached an agreement on the all-for-all prisoner exchange. The Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic were ready to release 47 prisoners and expected Kiev to free 618 their supporters, however, there has been no prisoner exchange yet.

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