First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s representative in the humanitarian sub-group of the Trilateral Contact Group for Donbas settlement Iryna Gerashchenko has reiterated Kyiv’s readiness to give over 23 imprisoned Russians in exchange for Ukrainians, but Moscow hasn’t given any answer yet.
“Once again I pointed out the readiness of the Ukrainian side to hand over to the Russian Federation 23 Russian citizens convicted of crimes against territorial integrity in exchange for Ukrainians held in the Russian Federation as soon as possible. We have not received an answer to this proposal. For their part, representatives of ORDLO (uncontrolled areas of Donbas) continue to include these Russians on their lists qualifying them as “militia – residents of young republics.” Russia has not shown any interest in the citizens it sent to Ukraine,” she wrote on the Facebook page following the results of the work of the humanitarian subgroup.
In addition, Gerashchenko said there is no progress in the issue of hostage release so far. “We have not received confirmation for dozens of our citizens, they do not offer any information about them, but they persistently demand we should give over Berkut riot police officers and others who do not fall under the Minsk agreements. So we will continue our work to find a compromise and rapprochement of the position for getting the result,” she explained.
