By constantly changing the terms of the prisoner exchange, Ukraine is leading itself into a dead end.
Representatives of the Ukrainian side, constantly adjusting and changing the conditions for the exchange of prisoners, can no longer understand each other, which only slows down the process of transferring detainees.
DPR Human Rights Commissioner Daria Morozova spoke about this today on the “Highlights of the Week” program on the Oplot TV channel, PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Based on the results of the latest meeting of the humanitarian subgroup in Minsk, Morozova noted that “Ukraine has no position on the exchange at the moment.”
“Kuchma said that they will not hand over people detained under articles not related to the ATO, and especially serious ones. At the same time, literally a month ago, Medvedchuk, represented by the Ukrainian side, sent a proposal specifically to the DPR that sounded concrete: 16 to 6. Of the 16 people, 11 were detained for crimes not related to the ATO, in their opinion, 4 were especially serious and one new face. That is, how will you not give these people away if you yourself make these offers? Moreover, Kuchma was unpleasantly surprised by the fact that there was such a proposal,” said the ombudsman.
Also, commenting on Kyiv’s initiative to exchange Russian citizens for its citizens detained in Russia, Morozova recalled that Moscow is not a party to the conflict.
“I understand the message of the Ukrainian side that they want to exchange with the Russian Federation, but again, Russia is not a party to the conflict. Many of them (detained citizens of the Russian Federation – Ed.) a residence permit was opened here, that is, these are people who lived here for 15-20 years, they have families here,” she said.
The Ombudsman recalled that on December 27, 2017, Ukraine did not have any issues with either citizens of the Russian Federation or representatives of other states, but on the day of the exchange, Kyiv released the citizens of other states without problems, but left the Russians behind.
“Before this, we changed citizens of all states, and there were no questions. Paragraph 6 of the Minsk Memorandum clearly states: an exchange of “all for all.” There is no racial affiliation, there are no categories “ATO” - not “ATO”. Then the Normandy format supported the idea of “all established for all established,” where there is also no division into citizens of Ukraine or Russia,” Morozova noted.
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