The Ukrainian authorities and representatives of the self-proclaimed republics of the DPR and LPR held the first exchange of prisoners this year. 

The procedure for transferring the detainees between Donetsk and Kiev went to the Mayorsk checkpoint through the contact line in the suburbs of the DNI-controlled Gorlovka.

The representative of the DPR in the subgroup on humanitarian issues, the human rights ombudsman in the republic, Daria Morozova, said that Kiev transferred ten people to the republic, and Donetsk to nine. 

“The exchange of held persons between the Donetsk People’s Republic and the state of Ukraine has just completed. Ten people returned home, one refused to move to the territory of the DPR, ”explained Morozova.

  • The exchange of prisoners between the DPR and Kiev in the Gorlovka area.

The Ombudsman also added that all persons transferred to Kiev were exempted from criminal punishment.

“On our part, we carried out the entire procedural cleaning of all the individuals transferred to Ukraine,” Morozova said.

In addition, due to the threat of the spread of the coronavirus, all arrivals will receive a two-week quarantine, Morozova added. After that, those who do not have housing in the DPR will be provided with it, as well as material assistance will be provided.

The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Lyudmila Denisova, also confirmed the completion of the exchange in the area of ​​the Mayorsk checkpoint. According to her, nine citizens of Ukraine are returning home.

Later that day, an exchange of prisoners took place between Kiev and Lugansk, said the representative of the LPR in the working group on humanitarian issues of the Contact group, the head of the working group for the exchange of prisoners of war, LPR Olga Kobtseva. The process of transferring the detainees took place on a bridge near the city of Happiness in the presence of observers of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, as well as employees of the Joint Center for the Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire.

  • Relatives 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
  • RIA News

“The Ukrainian side transferred four people to the LPR, the Republic - 11 persons withheld,” the Lugansk Information Center reported.

At this entrance to the videoconference of the contact group, the LNR and Kiev agreed on April 8 to exchange according to the “11 by 8” formula. After that, four people refused to exchange

“All necessary measures for the procedural cleaning (of transferred persons. - RT) have been carried out by the LPR,” Kobtseva said earlier, adding that the country expects Kiev to fulfill the same obligations in accordance with the agreement.

In Russia, the exchange of prisoners between Ukraine and the Donbass was positively assessed.

“This is a step in the right direction to implement the decisions of the Paris Summit of the Norman Four in December last year,” Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko told RIA Novosti.

He also expressed hope that "at the next meeting of the Minsk Contact Group, which will be held on April 22 in the form of a video conference, it will be possible to reach new agreements."

President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky also welcomed the exchange of held persons with the Donbass.

“I am very glad that now the first part of our citizens of Ukraine has already been released,” he said after completing the exchange of prisoners with the DPR. 

The office of the President of Ukraine noted that “the mutual release of the detainees occurred within the framework of the“ all for all ”format.

Could do more

The Russian envoy in the contact group for a settlement in the Donbass, Boris Gryzlov, for his part, noted that the Ukrainian authorities had long restrained the negotiation process on the exchange.

“The Kiev delegation in the contact group for a long time slowed down the decision on the exchange. They managed to reach an agreement only after connecting the highest level of the administration, ”Gryzlov emphasized.

At the same time, the number of transferred persons is much lower compared to previous exchanges, although in the current situation “everyone is precious,” said Vladimir Dzhabarov, First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs, in an interview with RT.

Recall that in the previous transfer of prisoners, which took place on December 29, 2019, Kiev transferred 124 people to Donetsk and Lugansk, the self-proclaimed republics gave 76 people to the Ukrainian authorities.

“Nevertheless, there is progress and negotiations are ongoing. One bad thing, it is still a small part of what they should have done according to the results of the Minsk agreements. Therefore, I think. What other events should follow the exchange. This is, first of all, the withdrawal of troops from the demarcation line. And the adoption of a package of relevant laws, ”Jabarov emphasized.

During the last meeting in Minsk in March 2020, the participants in the negotiations on the Donbass first fixed their obligations in the final protocol of the meeting. As explained by the representative of the LPR, Rodion Miroshnik, according to the document, in addition to exchanging prisoners, the parties should “work out compromise proposals on areas for the separation of forces and assets and create an advisory council on political issues.”

  • Heads of state at the negotiating table in an expanded format. Minsk, February 11, 2015.
  • kremlin.ru

But among the slowdown in the causes of the process of resolving the situation in the Donbass, there is one more factor, said the director of the Institute of the Newest States, political analyst Alexei Martynov. 

“At the moment, negotiations are ongoing for the sake of negotiations against the backdrop of a pandemic agenda, which today has scored everything in the world, and in Ukraine in particular ... Everywhere is a virus and panic. And against the backdrop of this pandemic agenda, such important issues, issues of war and peace, go by the wayside. Unfortunately, this is so, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

“Thank you for resolving the conflict, but maintaining it at the“ frozen ”level at which the active phase of the settlement has stopped,” he concluded.

Recall that the conflict in southeastern Ukraine flared up in February 2014 after a government coup. Representatives of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions declared their disagreement with the policies of the new authorities. In April 2014, Kiev launched a military operation against the self-proclaimed LPR and DPR.