Dozens of people handed over to each other: Kiev and Donbass exchanged prisoners

Ukraine and Donetsk separatists exchanged prisoners for the first time in two years. Kyiv and the armed formations, the so-called LPR and DPR, handed over dozens of people to each other, including fighters of the Berkut unit accused of shooting people on the Maidan in February 2014. Writes about this with the BBC.

Photo: Facebook / Office of the President of Ukraine

Late Sunday night, a plane with liberated Ukrainians landed at the Kiev Borispol airport. After meeting with relatives, their buses were sent to hospitals for examination.

“We will continue to work until all Ukrainians who are prisoners of Russia and the quasi-republics are at home,” Ivan Bakanov, head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), told reporters after the release of the prisoners.

The exchange was agreed between Russian and Ukrainian presidents Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky with the participation of the leaders of Germany and France.

The exchange began on a foggy morning at the Mayorsk checkpoint on the contact line in Donbass and ended only in the afternoon. Kyiv planned to transfer 87 people and rescue 55. As a result, they exchanged more - 124 for 76.

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More than a dozen people refused to return to the territory controlled by the separatists, Interfax reported citing representatives of the LPR and DPR. Four people from the list of Kiev decided to stay in Donetsk.

In 2017, the exchange was also not equal: 233 to 73. In addition, in September Russia and Ukraine exchanged detainees and prisoners according to the formula “35 to 35”.

The armed conflict in eastern Ukraine began after the revolution in Kiev in 2014 and the annexation of Crimea, for which the United States and Europe punished Russia with sanctions.

Photo: Facebook / Office of the President of Ukraine

Kiev and the West accuse Moscow of political and military support for the separatists in the Donbass. The Kremlin denies interference. He distributes Russian passports to the inhabitants of the DPR and LPR and allegedly acts as a mediator in the negotiations of the separatists with the Ukrainian authorities.

The decision of the Ukrainian authorities to extradite to Russia the fighters of the Berkut special forces, against whom criminal cases are being conducted for the execution of protest participants on the Maidan of Independence in Kyiv in 2014, caused sharp criticism in Ukrainian society.

Commenting on the exchange, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that it was a difficult decision.

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“We took our heroes. Our priority is to get our people back. I respect the parents and relatives of the “Heavenly Hundred” who lost loved ones on the Maidan. Unfortunately, we cannot bring back those who are no longer there. But we could bring back the living. And we will finish the Maidan affairs,” Zelensky said.

“If I had a hundred more Berkut soldiers and they offered me one intelligence officer, I would give it. The exchange could fail every day. I brought back the living, and it seems to me that this is the most important thing,” the Ukrainian leader added.

Photo: Facebook / Office of the President of Ukraine

According to observers, although the current exchange in the Donbass will bring relief to the prisoners themselves and their families, it is unlikely to help further the settlement of the conflict.

“In Kyiv, the terms of the Minsk-2 agreement are still cursed, and this will remain unchanged. It is much more likely that the conflict will become frozen than will be resolved,” posted on twitter Head of the Carnegie Moscow Center, Dmitry Tenin.

Screenshot: Twitter / @ DmitriTrenin

How was the exchange prepared?

We agreed on an exchange 9 December in Paris at a meeting in the “Normandy format” heads of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France. In a communique following the meeting, they called on the trilateral contact group to facilitate the exchange of “all for all” by the end of the year.

At the same time, Zelensky stipulated that we are talking only about “all agreed on all agreed.”

The contact group includes Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE, as well as representatives of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR. Meetings take place in Minsk. At the first meeting after the Paris summit on December 18, it was not possible to agree on the lists. It was possible to do this only on December 23 - we agreed to exchange agreements before the New Year in the format of “all installed for all installed.”

Photo: Facebook / Office of the President of Ukraine

At the same time, Ukrainian media reported that, as part of the exchange, Kyiv was ready to transfer to the DPR and LPR former employees of the special unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine “Berkut”, accused of shooting people on the Maidan in 2014.

The exchange date—December 29—became known only the day before. The DPR was the first to name it, and then Zelensky confirmed it, but again with a reservation. “We are waiting for this. The verification of all people has not yet been fully completed,” the President of Ukraine said, without specifying details.

Only late in the evening of December 28, the Kyiv Court of Appeal changed the measure of restraint and decided to release former Berkut fighters Pavel Abroskin, Sergei Zinchenko and Oleg Yanishevsky from the pre-trial detention center. At the court hearing, prosecutor Sergei Kutsy confirmed that they were on the list for exchange. Two more former special forces officers were previously transferred to house arrest. The court released all five on personal recognizance.

Photo: Facebook / Office of the President of Ukraine

Attorney Valentin Rybin said earlier that Yanishevsky, Abroskin and Zinchenko had been applying for an exchange for many years, but were refused.

After the decision of the Kiev court on their release from custody near the pre-trial detention center, activists gathered. They built a barricade of benches and garbage cans to prevent the accused of shooting from the isolation ward.

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