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Humanitarian subgroup agrees on details of Donbass detainee swap — OSCE

The mutual release and exchange will take place "in due time in advance of the Orthodox Easter", which is marked on Sunday, April 19

KIEV, April 15. /TASS/. Members of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG)’s humanitarian subgroup have agreed on details of a swap of detainees, expected to take place until Sunday, Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group Heidi Grau said in a statement on Thursday.

"Following up on the in-principle agreement reached by the Trilateral Contact Group with the participation of representatives of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, the TCG Working Group on humanitarian issues concerted today the details of a mutual release and exchange of detainees related to the conflict in eastern Ukraine," the statement says.

The mutual release and exchange will take place "in due time in advance of the Orthodox Easter", which is marked on Sunday, April 19.

Russia's envoy to the Contact Group Boris Gryzlov said on April 8 the sides in the Donbass conflict had agreed on prisoner exchange. According to him, representatives of Kiev, Donetsk and Lugansk have principally coordinated the lists of detained persons for exchange. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) is ready to exchange eight detainees in return for 10 of its residents. The Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) expects to exchange detainees on the "11 for 8" basis.

The first major prisoner swap in two years between the self-proclaimed Donbass republics and Kiev took place on December 29, 2019. The Donbass republics handed over 76 prisoners for Kiev’s 124.

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