Just days after the Kremlin-backed separatists’ oldest hostage – Ihor Kozlovsky – spent his second – 63rd – birthday in captivity, militant leader Alexander Zakharchenko has put forward new restrictions on hostage exchange, as well as other direct infringements of the Minsk Agreement. In an interview on Russian state television, Zakharchenko said that his so-called ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ [DNR] would accept only an exchange of ‘prisoners of war for prisoners of war’. He added that the militants “have no need” of people arrested on separatism charges, and made no mention at all of the many civilian hostages they are holding prisoner.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
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Donetsk separatists leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko speaks during an interview at his office in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk in April, 2015.
