DPR suspended prisoner exchange with Kyiv

Representatives of the "Donetsk People's Republic" announced the suspension of the exchange of prisoners with the Kiev authorities, according to the Donetsk News Agency.

The envoy of the self-proclaimed republic, Denis Pushilin, explained that the exchange would not resume until the issue with the working subgroups of the Contact Group, the creation of which is provided for by the Minsk agreements, is resolved.

Pushilin recalled that there should be four such groups: on economics and reconstruction, on refugees and humanitarian assistance, on constitutional reform and refugees, and on security.

According to the representative of the DPR, a humanitarian assistance group could deal with contentious issues during the exchange of prisoners.

The exchange of prisoners is one of the points of the agreements signed in Minsk on February 12 to resolve the situation in eastern Ukraine. The document provides for the exchange of prisoners in the "all for all" format. Since the signing of the document, the parties have carried out several rounds of prisoner exchanges, but several hundred people remain in captivity on both sides.