The exchange of prisoners between the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass and Kiev should take place on Sunday, December 29. This was reported on the website of the apparatus of the Commissioner for Human Rights in the DPR. It is clarified that the parties managed to agree on an exchange of prisoners on the principle of "all installed on all installed", in which the Ukrainian side will transfer 87 people, and the republics of Donbass - 55 prisoners.
“Despite all the obstacles from the Ukrainian side, we still managed to agree. The preliminary date is Sunday, the 29th. If the Ukrainian side fulfills all its obligations, then we can really make this long-awaited exchange, ”Daria Morozova, ombudsman of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said earlier in a comment to Russia 1 TV channel.
- Commissioner for Human Rights in the DPR Daria Morozova
- © @ombudsmandnr
On Saturday, December 28, President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky confirmed that the exchange of prisoners is scheduled for December 29, but added that verification of the people to be transferred has not yet been completed.
“The exchange should be tomorrow. We are waiting for this. Verification of all people has not yet been completed, ”he told reporters in the Ivano-Frankivsk region.
Earlier, the press center of the headquarters of the operation of the Joint Forces of Ukraine warned that on December 29, for technical reasons, the Mayorsk checkpoint on the demarcation line in the Donetsk region will not work. Ukrainian media suggest that this may be due to the upcoming exchange.
It should be noted that the call to the contact group to agree on the terms of the exchange before the end of this year was contained in the communique adopted by the leaders of Ukraine, France, Russia and the Federal Republic of Germany based on the results of negotiations in the Norman format held on December 9 in Paris. In the final document, the meeting participants secured the fundamental role of the Minsk Agreements for further work in the Norman format, and also emphasized the need for the separation of forces of the warring parties by the end of March in three more areas on the contact line.
Difficult negotiations
However, it was not easy for the parties to come to an agreement in practice. The meeting of the contact group for settlement in the Donbass, held on December 18 in Minsk, was unsuccessful. According to the results of the meeting, the head of the working group of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic on the exchange of prisoners, Olga Kobtseva, the negotiations broke down due to the lack of the “Ukrainian mechanism for the procedural cleaning of people to be exchanged”.
At that time, the Russian envoy in the contact group for resolving the situation in eastern Ukraine Boris Gryzlov also informed reporters about the difficulties that arose through the fault of Kiev. He explained that many participants in previous exchanges handed over by the republic received documents confirming the absence of criminal prosecution against them by Ukrainian government agencies.
In Donetsk, the actions of Kiev were called “sabotage” of the recommendations received at the summit of the “Norman Four”. This, in particular, was stated by the DPR Ombudsman Daria Morozova.
However, the parties did not abandon attempts to reach an agreement. On December 23, another meeting of the contact group was held, according to the results of which it was possible to agree on an exchange according to the formula “all installed on all installed”. Representatives of the OSCE and Russia acted as mediators in the negotiations.
“This is what we have not been able to achieve in two years. Ukraine has finally reaffirmed its obligations to apply to persons who will return for the exchange a procedure guaranteeing their release from criminal punishment and prosecution, ”said the head of the DPR Foreign Ministry, Natalya Nikonorova, commenting on the results of the negotiations.
In turn, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Vadim Pristayko on December 23 stated that the parties had to finalize the lists of exchanged persons.
“Agreed one group of people, which is certainly ready for an exchange. The question arises: exchange them right now or try to finalize the lists and pick everyone up, since we want to return the maximum number of people to their families before the New Year, ”the minister said in an interview with Ukrainian agency Ukrinform.
- Vadim Priestayko
- globallookpress.com
- © Danil Shamkin / ZUMAPRESS.com
Moreover, the very next day, representatives of the DPR and LPR accused Kiev of trying to unilaterally reformat the exchange list. As Olga Kobtseva stated in an interview with RIA Novosti, the Ukrainian side presented “incorrect lists of participants to be released”, from which some people were deleted.
In particular, in Kiev, three ex-employees of the Berkut special forces were excluded from the list, whom the Ukrainian authorities accuse of involvement in executions on the Maidan in the winter of 2014. This was announced by the lawyer of the former Berkutovites Valentin Rybin on his Facebook page.
Meanwhile, on December 28, information appeared that a court in Kiev had released five "Berkut" men under personal obligation. Presumably, this is due to the fact that the Ukrainian side plans to include them in the list of exchanged persons. Meanwhile, it is reported that nationalists began to gather at the courthouse to prevent the ex-soldiers of the Golden Eagle from being taken out
So far, the composition of the lists of persons prepared for the exchange on both sides is unknown. According to Ukrainian media, among people transferred by the Ukrainian side may be, in particular, Kharkiv Mehti Logunov. Earlier, a Ukrainian court sentenced 85-year-old Logunov to 12 years in prison on charges of organizing an "intelligence network of Russian military intelligence." As the lawyer of the convict previously said, he refused to ask for pardon from the president of Ukraine, but agreed to an exchange because of his age.
Meanwhile, experts believe that not only prisoners of war can be included in the lists of exchanged persons.
“The formula of“ all installed on all installed ”implies vague criteria, so lists have been coordinated for so long. In addition, initially, Kiev had no desire to conduct an exchange. But during negotiations in the Norman format, Zelensky said that the exchange will take place, and now he must demonstrate that he is in control of the situation and fulfill the promise, ”Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the CIS Institute, said in an interview with RT.
The blame for the fact that for two years the parties failed to agree on an exchange of prisoners, political scientists lay on Kiev. According to Bohdan Bezpalko, an expert at the Council on Interethnic Relations under the President of the Russian Federation, negotiations were hampered by the fact that Kiev was trying to remove a number of people from the exchange lists.
“For example, the Ukrainian authorities categorically refused to change the former Berkut fighters, and some detainees were pressured. For example, Nikolai Ruban and Mehti Logunov tried to force them to admit their guilt and refuse to participate in the exchange. In addition, Kiev refused to drop criminal charges against people, which is why in the future they could be put on the international wanted list at the request of Ukraine, ”Bezpalko explained in a commentary on RT.
“Risk is always present”
It should be noted that in September there was an exchange of convicted and detained persons between Ukraine and Russia. Among the 35 people transferred to Kiev were 24 Ukrainian sailors detained by Russian law enforcement agencies during the incident in the Kerch Strait in the fall of 2018, as well as director Oleg Sentsov, convicted in Russia for terrorist crimes. In turn, the Ukrainian side released 35 people from arrest and transported to Russia, including the former head of RIA Novosti Ukraine portal Kirill Vyshinsky, military DNR Vladimir Tsemakh and Russian citizen Yevgeny Mefyodov, who was arrested in Ukraine in the case of events in Odessa in 2014.
- Ukrainian prisoners during the exchange of prisoners between the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics and Kiev in the neutral territory between the villages of Mayorsk and Gorlovka, 2017
- RIA News
- © Igor Maslov / RIA News
“A historic large-scale humanitarian action to return the citizens of Russia and Ukraine to their families took place,” said Tatyana Moskalkova, Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia.
The last time the exchange of prisoners between the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass and Kiev took place two years ago. In December 2017, in Gorlovka (the territory of the self-proclaimed DPR), Donetsk transferred 57 detainees to Kiev, and the Ukrainian side released 165 people home. An exchange was separately conducted between Kiev and the LPR: Lugansk then sent 16 people to Ukraine, 75 prisoners were transferred from the territories controlled by Kiev to the representatives of the LPR. The exchange between the LPR and Kiev took place on a neutral territory between Gorlovka and Mayorsk.
Experts are in no hurry to make optimistic forecasts regarding the exchange scheduled for December 29. According to Bogdan Bezpalko, it cannot be ruled out that an attempt to exchange prisoners will fail.
“Such a risk is always present, because there were a lot of cases when exchanges at the last moment broke down due to the fault of the Ukrainian side,” the expert noted.
However, if the exchange does take place, it will bring Kiev and Donbass closer to the world, the expert said.
“Exchange, of course, will help resolve the situation, although there will still be many contradictions. For example, just the other day, Ukrainian security forces again fired on the territory of the DPR. Even taking into account that the parties managed to withdraw their forces in Petrovsky and Zolotoy, until Kiev fulfills the conditions of the Minsk agreements, peace should not be expected, ”the expert explained.
A similar point of view is shared by Vladimir Zharikhin.
“Unfortunately, the likelihood that the exchange will fail at the last moment remains. But still, Vladimir Zelensky will do everything to make it happen, since it is extremely important for world public opinion. This will be a step in the direction of peace, but there is still a long way to go before a settlement, ”concluded Zharikhin.