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Donetsk keeps POW as Kiev refuses to present list of its prisoners

The defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic says Dontesk fears Kiev would not return captured militias after receiving their servicemen

© EPA/ROMAN PILIPEY

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DONETSK, September 08. /ITAR-TASS/. Authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic could not begin the prisoner swap as Kiev had refused to present its list of captured militias, the Novorossiya news agency said on Monday, referring to the republic’s acting Defense Minister Leonid Baranov.

“We have not received from Kiev lists of prisoners they plan to release,” the agency quotes the defense minister as saying. “We fear Kiev may cheat us as we release the prisoners we have.”

“The Donetsk Republic fears Kiev would not return captured militias after receiving their servicemen,” the agency said.

“Kiev says it holds about 200-300 prisoners,” the agency quoted the defense minister. “However, they still do not have detailed lists. Besides, about one thousand of our supporters and of Donbass’ civilians are unaccounted for, but in reality many of them are prisoners, too. We are releasing over one thousand in exchange to our three hundred people, and we do not want to be cheated.”

On September 3, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin suggested a seven-item plan to settle the crisis in Ukraine after a phone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko a day earlier.

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