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Ukraine creating new obstacles for exchange of prisoners - Lavrov

The ultimate goal is ‘all-for-all’, Russian Foreign Minister says

MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. Kiev is creating obstacles for the exchange of prisoners with the self-proclaimed republics in Donbass insisting on the procedural clearance, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Sunday.

"[The Normandy Four summit] in Paris called on the Contact Group to agree the lists for the exchange in the all identified for all identified format," he said in an interview with the Bolshaya Igra (Big Game) program on Russia’s television Channel One. "The ultimate goal is ‘all-for-all’ but when over all these years they have been agreeing the lists, it turned out that not all of them happened to be mutually confirmed. Some lists are recognized by both sides as the lists of real people, with everyone knowing where there people are kept and how they can be released and exchanged. It was clearly fixed and it was discussed by the leaders - Vladimir Putin (of Russia) and Vladimir Zelensky (of Ukraine) in the presence of [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel and [French President] Emmanuel Macron. They agreed that these people have been identified, their name are on the lists and hence they will be exchange."

"Now, a new criteria has emerged in the Contact Group: not all of those identified are "procedurally cleared." It means a new obstacle hampering these people be home by the New Year and Christmas," Lavrov noted.

A Normandy Four summit crisis was held in Paris on December 9, for the first time after a three-year break. Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia, Emmanuel Macron of Germany, Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine and German Chancellor Angela Merkel gathered in the Elysee Palace to discuss ways of settling the conflict in Donbass.

The seven-hours talks yielded a final document committing to paper a number of concrete accords. Among the summit’s expected results was an agreement to exchange prisoners-of-war in Donbass under the formula of "all identified for all identified" by the yearend and to disengage forces at three more sections of the contact line by March 2020.

However, the Contact Group that met in Minsk on December 18 failed to reach an agreement on concrete measures on the implementation of the summit’s document.

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Ukraine Sergey Lavrov

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