DNIPROPETROVSK - A team of Ukrainian negotiators on July 23 facilitated the release of six more people who had been taken prisoner in the zone of hostilities in east Ukraine.
“The negotiating group planned to free more prisoners, but the fighting in the zone of the antiterrorist operation obstructed these plans,” head of the group Col. Gen. Volodymyr Ruban said at a Wednesday press conference.
“Yesterday we succeeded in freeing from captivity Oleksand Dobylev, an activist from Luhansk; Ihor Leschytin, a volunteer from Ivano-Frankivsk; Artur Pardavian, a member of Temur battalion from Luhansk region; Taras Patunia, a member of Temur battalion from Luhansk region, and Anatoly Holovchenko, a member of Aidar battalion from Poltava,” deputy head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional administration Borys Filatov announced at the press conference without disclosing the name of the sixth person.
Ruban said that the negotiating team plans to visit Horlivka in the Donetsk region to negotiate the terms of the release of a captured citizen from Sweden. Also in Donetsk it will try to negotiate the release of some 40 servicemen held prisoner by various militia units.
“The illegal armed formations are keeping 300 to 400 people in captivity,” he said.
