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Lugansk Republic receives 63 people in prisoner swap with Kiev

Nine people refused to participate in the swap and remained in Ukraine

GORLOVKA, December 29. /TASS/. The self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) has received 63 people in a prisoner swap with Kiev and handed over 25 persons, the republic’s envoy in the humanitarian subgroup of the Contact Group on settlement in eastern Ukraine, head of the LPR’s group on the prisoner exchange Olga Kobtseva announced on Sunday.

"We have held the swap. We handed over 25 and took back 63 people," she told journalists. Nine people refused to participate in the swap and remained in Ukraine, she added.

The prisoner swap is taking place at the Gorlovka-Mayorskoye point of entry/exit on the line of contact between the Donetsk People’s Republic and Ukraine. It was earlier reported that Donetsk and Lugansk were set to hand over 55 persons to Kiev and expected to receive 87 people.

The verification of the prisoners lasted several hours. The prisoner swap is being monitored by the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine and representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Olga Kobtseva also said that the Ukrainian side handed over to LPR several volunteers from Russia and a Brazilian national.

"The lists are different. They also include Russian nationals who came to our republic as volunteers. There are even citizens of another state. Thus, a Mr. Lusvargi has been released. Let us hope he will be back home soon safe and sound," LuganskInformCenter quoted her as saying.

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