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Kiev, Donetsk exchange 73 Ukrainian servicemen for 69 Donetsk militia fighters

The swap is taking place near the settlement of Konstantinovka some 60 kilometres south of Donetsk
Exchange of prisoners of war between militia fighters and government forces
© RUPTLY/TASS TV

DONETSK, September 14. /ITAR-TASS/. An exchange of prisoners of war between Donetsk militia and the Ukrainian army took place on Sunday evening, Darya Morozova, the chairperson of the Donetsk People’s Republic’s (DPR) committee for prisoners of war, said, adding that 73 Ukrainian servicemen had been exchanged for 69 Donetsk self-defence fighters.

The swap is taking place near the settlement of Konstantinovka some 60 kilometres south of Donetsk.

DPR representatives earlier said that captured militias and Ukrainian troops would be exchanged under the formula “65 for 65.”

On Friday, September 12, the first official exchange of prisoners of war took place, with 37 people released by each of the parties. The swap took place near the settlement of Konstantinovka some 60 kilometres south of Donetsk.

In line with the Minsk agreements reached within the framework of the Contact Group on Ukraine on September 5, the exchange of prisoners of war is to be done in the format “all for all.”

The exact number of detainees is not yet known. The head of the DPR’s committee on refugee and POW affairs said earlier that the militia had “up to a thousand Ukrainian prisoners of war.”

The lists of DPR activists kept in custody by the Ukrainian forces are being specified