Ukraine to free 15 detainees to revive prisoner exchange with rebels: official
Xinhua, December 15, 2016 Adjust font size:
The Ukrainian government has decided to release 15 out of 228 detained supporters of independence-seeking insurgents as a goodwill gesture to revive the stalled prisoner swap, a senior Ukrainian official said Thursday.
"These people will be pardoned by presidential decrees or by other legal procedures with an aim to unblock the liberation of hostages," Irina Gerashchenko, a representative of Kiev in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group on the Ukraine crisis, told a media briefing.
A list of detainees that will be released by Kiev includes women, critically ill men and elderly people, Gerashchenko said.
The prisoner exchange between the Ukrainian government and the insurgents has been locked in a stalemate for months as the two sides are unable to reach mutually acceptable conditions for the swap.
The insurgents are insisting on an "all-for-all" prisoner exchange, but Kiev is refusing to release the individuals.
The prisoner swap is a key part of the Minsk ceasefire agreement, designed to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed some 10,000 people since April 2014. Endi