DONETSK, October 16. /TASS/. Exchange of prisoners of war between militias of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic /DPR/ in eastern Ukraine and the Ukrainian army will soon be resumed, Darya Morozova, head of the DPR committee for refugees and prisoners of war, said on Thursday.

“Exchange of prisoners of war will soon be resumed,” she told a briefing. “Everything is ready to begin another round of prisoner swap, the lists are ready.”

When asked when such a swap would take place, she said the DPR authorities were ready to do it “within an hour.”

According to Morozova, prisoner exchanges were suspended because the Ukrainian side had handed over civilians giving them out as militias. “The Ukrainian side did not hand over prisoners of war. About 30% of the 231 people they handed over were political prisoners and civilians,” she said, adding that the DPR was in talks with the Ukrainian side at the moment.

“They have submitted a list of 400 names. We are checking it to see the reason for detention,” Morozova noted.

Exchange of prisoners of war was a key provision of the agreements reached at a Minsk meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine on September 5. Since then, there have been five such swaps in the Donetsk People’s Republic: 37 for 37, 70 for 70, 38 for 38, 28 for 28, and 30 /Ukrainian troops/ for 60 /militias/; and one swap in the Lugansk People’s Republic - 13 militias were exchanged for 14 Ukrainian troops on October 14.