Russia and DPR militants rejected Ukraine’s offer to hold a detainee exchange: media

The exchange of detainees between Russia, the militants of “L / DPR” and Ukraine will not take place until the New Year. The RBC agency writes about this, referring to Russian sources close to the negotiation process.

In particular, the militants are demanding “legal compensation” from separatists detained by the Ukrainian authorities before the exchange.

“Without Ukraine’s fulfillment of its obligations, there is no probability of an exchange before the New Year,” Olga Kobtseva, a representative of the LPR group, told the news agency.

A source close to the Office of the President of Ukraine told RBC that “it is not always possible to do a legal cleanup quickly and efficiently.” “For example, someone needs a decision from a district court, but there are no judges there and he is not going to do it,” the source said.

In 2014, immediately after the annexation of Crimea, Russia launched an armed aggression in eastern Ukraine. The fighting is between the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on the one hand, and the Russian army and the Russian-backed militants who control parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, on the other. The Russian Federation does not officially recognize its invasion of Ukraine, despite the facts and evidence presented by Ukraine.

The agreements reached at the Normandy Four meeting in Paris in December 2019 provide for an exchange of all for all.

The last exchange of detainees took place on April 16, 2020. The militants released 20 people, the Ukrainian authorities handed them 14.

The Ukrainian side in the TCG offered to hold a detainee exchange until December 24. The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Leonid Kravchuk, said Kiev was calling for the release of 11 people.

Ukraine’s Ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova said in September that militants were illegally detaining 235 Ukrainians in ORDLO, and another 112 people were illegally imprisoned in the Russian Federation and annexed Crimea.