The authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) has supported the initiative by the Ukrainian representative in the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, to create a standalone agency to deal with prisoner exchanges.
“It is not ruled out that this structure could help in the prisoner-exchange process as there is no mechanism of pulling people out from there,” DPR people’s council first deputy speaker Andriy Purhin told reporters on April 6.
Upon their return to the DPR the released prisoners “are not cleared legally, and are formally wanted in Ukraine,” he said.
“The people who end up here after the exchange, on paper are still wanted in Ukraine, and since there is no amnesty law, the number of people on swap lists is growing daily in geometric progression,” Purhin said.
