Recent exchange of detainees between Moscow and Kiev makes it possible to take the path of normalizing Russian-Ukrainian relations.
Denis Denisov, director of the Institute of Peacemaking Initiatives and Conflictology, told Moskovsky Komsomolets about this.
“The exchange itself has become a symbolic gesture that confirms the possibility of effective negotiations and finding compromises. We have opportunities, if not to normalize relations, then at least to take this path. Immediately after the exchange, Ukrainian authorities announced that there were still 110 Ukrainians in Russian prisons. Apparently, we are talking about Crimean Tatars and other people who were arrested in Crimea,” the political scientist said.
However, the expert warns, such exchanges carry certain risks.
“In the future, we may encounter the fact that Kyiv will want to conduct all exchanges not with the DPR and LPR, but with Moscow, citing the positive experience of the “35 for 35” exchange. But this will change all ideas about the conflict in Donbass, Denisov believes. – It is important that the DPR and LPR exchange prisoners of war with Kiev under the Minsk agreements, and Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners along their line. Moscow has someone to pull out of Ukrainian prisons. According to some reports, up to several thousand people are imprisoned there, convicted of participating in the “Russian Spring”, but having nothing to do with the war in Donbass.”