You're reading: Gryzlov says Ukraine must grant amnesty to carry out all-for-all prisoner swap

MOSCOW - Ukraine needs to pass the amnesty law in order to implement the 'all-for-all' principle of exchanging prisoners, said Boris Gryzlov, Russia's representative in the Contact Group on Ukraine, commenting on the first prisoner swap in 2016.

“This is a modest but significant result of the Contact Group talks held on February 17. We have agreed to resume swaps of prisoners and illegally imprisoned persons. I am certain that, thanks to this, we will be able to ‘push’ this process and make the mechanism work,” the negotiator told reporters on Saturday.

Strategically, it is only possible to resume swaps as per the Minsk agreements, he said.

“This means: to release captives and the illegally imprisoned persons under the all-for-all principle. That in turn requires a broad amnesty,” Gryzlov said.

Earlier on Saturday Kyiv and the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) swapped their captives under a ‘three-for-six’ formula: the DPR released three captives in exchange for five militiamen and a priest released by Kyiv.

The Contact Group reached a principled agreement to resume prisoner swaps on January 13, 2015, Gryzlov said. The previous swap was in October 2015.