Ukraine proposes exchanging two convicted Russians for Ukrainian servicemen

Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group for Donbas Iryna Gerashchenko reported this on Facebook after a TCG meeting in Minsk on Wednesday.

"The Ukrainian side is looking for all possible ways to unblock the process of release of hostages from the Russian Federation and from occupied territories. I made another concrete proposal to the Russians. The Ukrainian side is ready, as an exception, to pardon two Russian citizens who have health problems and transfer them to the Russian consul in the presence of representatives of the OSCE and the ICRC, with the simultaneous transfer to Ukraine of Ukrainian servicemen who have been illegally held in Donbas for more than three years," Gerashchenko wrote.

She added that the Ukrainian side is still insisting on the simultaneous transfer of Russian citizens in exchange for Ukrainian political prisoners of the Kremlin, but is ready to take such a step to once again demonstrate its readiness for a compromise and constructive position in this matter.

Gerashchenko noted that the Ukrainian side is deeply concerned about the fact that Russia has not provided for a long time any response, in writing or verbally, to Ukraine's proposal to transfer Russians who committed crimes in exchange for Ukrainians held in Russian prisons.

"The Ukrainian side considers the release of the Kremlin's political prisoners in Russia and hostages in the Kremlin-occupied territories of Donbas as being equally important. The decision to release political prisoners and hostages is taken by the Kremlin alone. Now it is the Russian Federation and their puppets that block the release of hostages and all sober initiatives and attempts to unblock this issue," she said.

As reported, a two-day meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group for the peaceful settlement of the conflict in Donbas began in Minsk on August 21.

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