The statement by Vice Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Irina Gerashchenko following the negotiations in Minsk about Ukraine’s refusal to hand over participants of the Russian Spring in Odessa and Kharkov for prisoner exchange means nothing, since Ukraine did not intend to exchange prisoners. Political scientist Rostislav Ishchenko told Politnavigator about this.
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“The exchange of prisoners in the Minsk agreements, which were concluded more than two years ago, was one of the first points. It was written there: exchange everyone for everyone. Technically this is not difficult to do. It is enough to agree on a place and format, bring people, pick up your own. They have not done this for two years and do not intend to do this, as they have repeatedly stated,” Ishchenko said.
In his opinion, Ukraine is not going to implement a single point of the Minsk agreements, but cannot withdraw from the negotiation process.
“Everyone knows very well that Ukraine did not intend and does not intend to implement the Minsk agreements. She also cannot leave the negotiation process, then she will be to blame for their breakup, and the West will gladly wash its hands. Therefore, they send their representatives to each round, but negotiating and coming to an agreement are two different things,” the expert emphasized.
The fate of Ukrainian military personnel, he believes, has never bothered Ukraine.
Those Ukrainians who are in the LDPR are lucky. Many are in the ground, and they are in comfortable captivity. I think their relatives should be happy that while they are in prison, they will definitely not be killed. Ukraine completely calmly left its military personnel to die surrounded when they were offered to be withdrawn. They left those for slaughter, but these were simply captured,” the political scientist concluded.