Putin first negotiated with Zakharchenko and Plotnitsky

Vladimir Putin held telephone conversations with the heads of the DPR Alexander Zakharchenko and LPR Igor Plotnitsky. This was announced on Wednesday evening by the Kremlin website. As RBC noted , these were Putin's first negotiations with the leaders of the "republics".

During the conversation, proposals were discussed regarding the exchange of prisoners between the legitimate Ukrainian authorities in Kyiv and the militants of the DPR and the LPR. The proposals were expressed by the Ukrainian oligarch, the leader of the pro -Russian movement "Ukrainian Choice" Viktor Medvedchuk, who came to Putin Kum. Earlier on Wednesday, Medvedchuk met with Putin in the Novoerusalem Monastery near Moscow. According to RBC, Patriarch Kirill also participated in this meeting.

On Thursday morning, Interfax, citing an unnamed source involved in the organization of negotiations of the tripartite contact group in Minsk, reported that Medvedchuk’s proposals will be made for approval during the next meeting of the group on November 29.

Meanwhile, the first vice-speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Irina Gerashchenko, who was engaged in the Trilateral Contact Group with the issue of exchange of prisoners, even before Putin’s negotiations with the leaders of the militants, noted that, despite all the efforts of Kiev, not a single captive had been released over the past 14 months.

“We have long been ready to convey everyone we allowed Ukrainian legislation,” said the vice speaker. “We made these proposals a few months ago ... But we will not give in to blackmail - we cannot release those who in no way fall under the action of the Minsk agreements - for example, Berkutovites suspected of killing Heroes of Heaven Hundreds.”