DONETSK, December 15 (Sputnik) – The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) may begin an all-for-all prisoner swap with Kiev on December 25, the secretary of the DPR Security Council said Monday.
“The all-for-all swap is planned [to begin] from [December 25], as far as I know,” Alexander Khodakovsky said.
An all-for-all prisoner exchange was agreed to by the Kiev government and eastern Ukrainian independence supporters at a Contact Group meeting on the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis in Minsk in September.
Since the agreement to swap prisoners in September, several prisoner exchanges between Kiev and the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics have already taken place.
On December 10, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council said that the country's President Petro Poroshenko had ordered the release of prisoners held by Ukrainian authorities by December 25.
According to the council, Donetsk and Luhansk requested the release of about 500 prisoners, while independence supporters from the country's eastern regions are believed to hold 684 prisoners from the Ukrainian forces.
