Donetsk Invites OSCE Monitors to Oversee Prisoner Swap

The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic calls on the OSCE monitoring mission to oversee the prisoner swap in order to verify implementation of February 12 Minsk agreements.

DONETSK (Sputnik) – The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) invites monitors of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to oversee the prisoner swap with Kiev, the DPR deputy military commander said Thursday.

“We call on the OSCE monitoring mission in DPR to take part in the [prisoner swap] process in order to verify that DPR complies with its February 12 Minsk agreements,” Eduard Basurin said Thursday.

“We guarantee their full security throughout their stay in DPR,” he added.

An all-for-all prisoner swap was among the measures agreed upon by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany at the February 12 Ukraine reconciliation talks in Minsk.

The most recent prisoner exchange between the warring sides in Ukraine took place in late December 2014. The DPR released more than 145 prisoners and Kiev let go 222 captive pro-independence fighters.

Last week the DPR ombudswoman Darya Morozova said Kiev authorities were currently keeping some 580 DPR residents as prisoners of war.