Ukrainian side in TCG proposes to conduct exchange of detainees until Dec. 24

Oleksii Arestovych, an information policy adviser to the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), said this on the air of one of the Ukrainian TV channels, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We offer to hold a prisoner exchange before Christmas, December 24" he said.

Arestovych noted that, according to his information, "practical work" is underway to prepare a Normandy format meeting at the highest level.

As Ukrinform reported, the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG at a meeting on November 11 called for a mutual release of all detainees by the end of this year.

The last prisoner exchange in Donbas took place on April 16, 2020, when 19 Ukrainian citizens returned home from the occupied territories.

Some 112 Ukrainians are illegally detained in prisons on the territory of the Russian Federation and the illegally annexed Crimea, 235 Ukrainian citizens are held captive in the occupied Donbas.

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