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No confirmation from Kiev on prisoner swaps, says Lugansk

On December 27, 2017, a prisoner swap, the largest so far, took place on the line of contact in Donbass

LUGANSK, January 31. /TASS/. Kiev has not confirmed readiness for the Donbass prisoners’ exchange, said the envoy of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) to the humanitarian subgroup at Contact Group seeking a peace solution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

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"An exchange of unlawfully held detainees was in focus of discussions by the humanitarian working group," said Olga Kobtseva, the head of the LPR working group for prisoner exchanges.

"The republics again announced their readiness for a swap. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian side has not confirmed their readiness," she said.

Apart from that, the humanitarian subgroup discussed how to repair the bridge near Stanitsa Luganskaya and resume energy supplies to Novoaleksandrovka. Besides, the LPR touched upon water supply cuts by Kiev.

"Unfortunately, no consensus has been reached on any of the issues," Kobtseva said.

On December 27, 2017, a prisoner swap, the largest so far, took place on the line of contact in Donbass. Kiev handed over 233 prisoners to the Donbass republics and received 73 prisoners in return. Both parties stressed that the prisoner exchange process had not been completed and they were determined to do everything possible to continue it in 2018.

Later, Kobtseva added that the LPR would demand the release of 25 prisoners who Ukraine refused to hand over to the republic right before the recent swap.

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