KIEV (Sputnik) – Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) is preparing for a prisoner exchange with the self-proclaimed people’s republics of the southeast in the "25 to 50" format, Yuriy Tandit, a negotiator of the SBU center in charge of prisoner exchanges, has announced.
"The Ukrainian side is working on preparing for a large prisoner exchange. Thanks to a compromise, both sides are currently considering the release of 25 of our captives with the possibility of transferring 50 people," Tandit said on Wednesday, as quoted by local media.
According to the SBU negotiator, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has already sent lists of Ukrainian servicemen that DPR militants are keeping captive.
Tandit stressed that SBU is ready to free all of Ukrainian servicemen taken prisoner by militants in the southeast within the framework of the Minsk peace agreement.
In February 2015, a peace agreement was signed between the two sides in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, a weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, an all-for-all prisoner exchange and constitutional reforms, which would give a special status to DPR and LPR (Lugansk People’s Republic).
Kiev and LPR plan to carry out an exchange of prisoners on Thursday, with four Ukrainian servicemen planned to be exchanged for eight militants held by the Ukrainian authorities.
