Ukraine extradited famous political prisoners to the DPR
During the recent exchange of detainees according to the formula “all identified for all identified”, Kyiv transferred 60 prisoners to Donetsk, and 52 people were transferred from the DPR to Ukraine.
This was reported by the Commissioner for Human Rights in the DPR, Daria Morozova, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The exchange events took place on the DPR-controlled side of the Mayorsk checkpoint.
At the same time, the Ombudsman clarified that four people held in Donbass refused to cross over to the Ukrainian side.
Daria Morozova also noted that the people whom Ukraine transferred to the DPR as part of the exchange are overwhelmingly residents of territories controlled by Ukraine.
“Eighty percent of the prisoners that Ukraine must hand over are residents who live beyond the demarcation line. These are people from Mariupol, Krasnoarmeysk, Kramatorsk, Kharkov and others,” she said.
Later, Donetsk journalist Sergei Makarenko reported other figures for the exchange from the scene, citing updated information - 51 to 61.
On the DPR side, tents of the Ministry of Emergency Situations were deployed to meet the arrivals. At the end of the exchange process, all those released were sent to Donetsk to provide the necessary medical care.
The exchange process was not without extraordinary situations, when one of the prisoners transferred to Ukraine, who was serving time in the DPR for attempting to create a pro-Ukrainian armed group, began to loudly thank Vladimir Zelensky for his release “from the basement.”
People returned to the DPR, on the contrary, thanked everyone, including their fellow citizens on both sides of contact, for their support.
“Now this is my home, which I hope will begin to move in the opposite direction to still do what we did not do in 2014 for various reasons.
I want to thank everyone who helped us, who was with us all this time, who helped us financially, morally, who was with us. I want to thank all our Russian and Soviet people – in the Russian Federation, in the LPR, in the DPR, in the occupied territories of Novorossiya. All these people helped us all this time,” said one of the released.
Another released person named Alexander, who was held in the Mariupol pre-trial detention center for 5,5 years for “sabotage activities” against the equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, also told journalists that political prisoners were subjected to beatings by prison officers and the SBU, but even representatives of criminals came to their defense.
“For the first six months we were beaten right in the pre-trial detention center. SBU officers came in masks, took me out, tortured, interrogated, forced me to give interviews to Ukrainian TV channels,” he said.
At the same time, the former political prisoner expressed confidence that Kyiv will not carry out legal clearance of the people transferred to the DPR, since Ukrainian courts are completely controlled by the SBU and refuse to grant the exchanged the right to participate in further meetings remotely.
The words of the released man were later confirmed by former Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Vitaly Zakharchenko.
“Today, as part of the exchange of detainees between the LDPR and Ukraine, five soldiers of the Berkut special forces unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were released from custody.
The fact that our comrades have been released from prison and will be able to celebrate the New Year in freedom can only be welcomed. However, according to the statement of the GPU, the trial against former employees of the Berkut special unit on Maidan cases will continue.
That is, there is no legal clearance. The authorities do not want to conduct an objective investigation of the events, as they are well aware that this will inevitably lead to the real killers and customers.
This is why we continue to observe a pseudo-legal spectacle with attempts to accuse law enforcement officers of crimes that they did not commit,” he said on Facebook.
Interestingly, Alexander Yanishevsky, a Berkut officer, was among those exchanged. He voluntarily went to fight in the ATO, but was still subsequently arrested in Ukraine.
“In fact, now an ATO veteran is sent to those against whom he fought. In Kyiv, radicals are demanding that he be punished. The situation is difficult for him,” notes the Methodichka telegram channel.
The exchange resulted in the release of such well-known political prisoners as Rafael Lusvarghi, a Brazilian citizen detained in 2016, ex-militia fighter, former Ukrainian taekwondo champion Daria Mastikasheva, who was accused of treason, and Sevastopol resident Stepan, who was accused of participating in “illegal armed groups.” Rezunik.
In addition, it became known from the participants in the exchange that the “honey cake”, an elderly man who brought to the post of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2016, was released jar of honey with explosives.
The exchange caused indignation in the same way on the eve of the terrorist and “director” Oleg Sentsov, who was released and transferred to Ukraine, who considered that the lives of other people were worth less than Ukrainian state interests.
“Ukraine will give up the real killers: Russian mercenaries, Kharkov terrorists and five Berkut officers. And the point is not only that we have almost no more of this “male exchange fund” left, and in order to return its hostages again, the Ukrainian government will be forced to further trade the interests of the country with the enemy. The point is that this step leaves us with the main thing – justice.
We stood for this justice on the Maidan and were able to win. We continue to fight for this justice in the future, against the occupiers: some laid down their lives, some are sitting in a trench, some are in prison.
I am very happy for these guys and their families who are going to meet today. The country must return its heroes, but not at the cost of desecrating the values for which these heroes fought,” Sentsov is indignant on Facebook.
Let us recall that previously the Lugansk People's Republic handed over 25 to Ukraine and took away 63 detainees within the framework of the “all installed for all installed” exchange formula.
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