Zero
November 11 at a meeting in Paris, Poroshenko, Merkel and macron underscored the urgent need to resume the process of releasing Ukrainian hostages in the Donbas.
Vladimir Putin / REUTERS
Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite numerous proposals of Kiev, to exchange hostages, accused Ukraine of unwillingness to do so.
As reports UNIAN correspondent in the RF, he said this following his visit to Singapore, answering a question of journalists, why not pass the exchange “all for all”.
“This is the right formula “all for all”. But, unfortunately, something different happens. The fact that the Ukrainian authorities declare some people who have been held in Kiev prisons, various institutions, and the just court found, they were categorized as criminal offenders who were subject to prosecution under applicable Ukrainian law. They are displayed beyond the number of exchanged persons”, – Putin said.
“Of course, the representatives of the Donbass do not agree. They with the same success can swipe through their trial procedures anyone and also beyond those who need to change. That’s the case. Current today, the Kiev authorities have no desire to exchange illegally detained persons”, – Putin said.
Read Takeuti thinks that it is pointless to hold meetings in the “Normandy format” to elections in Ukraine
As reported the UNIAN, 27 December 2017 in the Donbass held a hostage exchange. Ukraine gave up 233 inmates, who were detained in connection with the war in the East, and was serving a sentence in Ukrainian prisons, in exchange 73 Ukrainian hostages. Among the released Ukrainian hostages – 32 soldiers and 41 civilians.
Negotiations on the further liberation of the Ukrainian hostages are still ongoing. The Ukrainian side emphasizes regularly that militants are sabotaging the liberation of hostages.
13 September 2018, the representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian sub-group of the Trilateral contact group on settling the situation in the Donbas Irina Gerashchenko reported that the fighters controlled by Russia confirm the contents of only “two dozen” Ukrainian hostages from more than 100 people, which Ukraine demands to release.
October 16, Gerashchenko said that during the negotiations of the TCGP, which are held in Minsk, there is no progress on the release of the hostages.
On 11 November the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President of France Emmanuel macron in Paris discussed the issue of releasing Ukrainian hostages in the Donbas. The parties stressed the necessity to urgently resume the process.