The Donbass republics will no longer allow such somersaults as in December 2017, when the Ukrainian side crossed people off the list for exchange right on the demarcation line.
The special representative of the LPR at the negotiations in Minsk, Rodion Miroshnik, stated this on the Rossiya-1 TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Today, literally at 18 p.m., our ombudsmen received the lists. Agreements have been in place since July, since July the ombudsmen have met every two weeks, verified people, reached some agreements, Zelensky went to Paris, where they agreed on an exchange
Yesterday, after the videoconference, the Ukrainian representative came out, and from her speech it was not clear at all with whom she was negotiating; there was not a word about the republics. It was agreed that there would be verification on the 27th-28th, because we have big questions about the large number of people who are beginning to “refuse to exchange,” Miroshnik said.
“Our ombudsmen demand that these people be brought to the contact line, so that a procedure can be built in which these people themselves will say that they refuse an exchange. Because before a person is included in the exchange list, he writes a statement about this: I agree to be exchanged during such and such a procedure.
We have received such information, I cannot say one hundred percent, which concerns Mehdi Logunov (85-year-old Kharkov political prisoner - Ed.), he is also there (on the list for exchange – Ed.) People from Kharkov called us and said that measures of physical coercion were being applied to him with a demand to refuse the exchange. I won’t go into detail about how they torture him, demanding that he take this step,” the negotiator said.
“I absolutely do not exclude that there are people who, for some reason, still believe in the Ukrainian law enforcement and judicial system and hope to prove their innocence, and on this basis ask to be removed from the lists. But this person must announce this himself,” Miroshnik added.
He noted that the leadership and ombudsmen of the Donbass republics are “literally agitated by this behavior of Ukraine.”
“Because you need to understand that agreements have been made for each person, the list is not at all random, it has been verified, and the parties have already agreed how many people will change. They must verify those who refused, set a date, formula and place of exchange,” the diplomat explained.
However, now, according to him, a situation is emerging where Ukraine is unilaterally changing the lists.
“Ukraine must clearly understand that there are no unilateral replacements of lists. Following Ukraine’s actions, there will be symmetrical or asymmetrical actions in response,” Miroshnik emphasized.
“That is, the situation that existed two years ago, when, under pressure from international organizations, including Russia, when we “swallowed” the exchange, when several people were not given to us literally already on the contact line, when the exchange itself took place, because there were many of people. Gerashchenko then crossed out people, one of whom did not live to this day. Therefore, today, I think, there will be no more such somersaults,” added the LPR representative.