You're reading: Prisoner exchange in east Ukraine rescheduled again

DONETSK – The prisoner exchange procedure has been postponed, said Andrei Purgin, the first deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).

 The reason for the rescheduling is the failure by Ukraine to abide by certain clauses of agreements, he said.

Preliminary reports suggest that the procedure has been rescheduled for Sept. 27.

This is the third time that the 60 for 60 swap has been rescheduled. The DPR prisoner exchange committee said on Sept. 24 and 25 that the reasons were similar: failure to comply with the deals and no response from the Ukrainian contact persons.

Under the protocol signed by the Contact Group as a result of their Minsk consultations on Sept. 5, DPR militants conducted their first exchange of 36 Ukrainians captives for 31 Donbas representatives on Sept. 11.

The second swap, with each side freeing 28 captives, took place 30 kilometers away from Donetsk on Sept. 21.

On Sept. 20, DPR militants and Ukraine released 38 captives each.

The swap on Sept. 14 saw 73 freed by each side.

The swaps were carried out in the presence of representatives from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko said last Thursday that Donbas militants were not complying with the agreement reached in Minsk on Sept. 5 to swap “all for all.”

“I stress that the agreement to free all for all is not being complied with by the other side,” Poroshenko told a press conference.