Promising exchange

Ukraine and the self -proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics are actively negotiating to resume the exchange of prisoners. Russian President Vladimir Putin also joined the process. According to experts, the parties are quite close to the achievement of some agreements on the issue.

The proposal for the exchange of prisoners between the DPR, LPR and Ukraine announced at a meeting with Russian President Valdimer Putin in the Novo-Jerusalem Monastery the leader of the “Ukrainian Choice-Law of the People”, the representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup of the contact group for resolving Viktor Medvedchuk. According to him, Ukraine is ready to release 306 prisoners, and "counts on the liberation of Donetsk and Lugansk 74 people."

The fact that the Russian leader joined the negotiation process became known on the evening of November 15. Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin first held telephone conversations with the leaders of the DPR and LPR Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky. “Putin told the interlocutors that he supported Medvedchuk’s proposal about a large -scale exchange of persons held on both sides,” the Kommersant newspaper Peskov.

Zakharchenko and Plotnitsky supported the initiative, Peskov said. He emphasized that the heads of the DPR and LPR "drew attention to the fact that it has yet to be completed to work this issue with representatives of the Ukrainian side."

Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky / Realgazeta.com.ua

On November 16, the TASS news agency reported that the Security Service of Ukraine announced readiness to exchange prisoners. According to the SBU speaker Elena Gitlyanskaya, the position of the department in this matter has always been ghostly. “We are ready to change everyone at everyone, we welcome any initiatives that will help our citizens return home,” the website of the Ukrainian television channel “ 112. Ukraine ” quotes her answer.

At the same time, the representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup of the trilateral contact group, the first vice speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Irina Gerashchenko, said that Kyiv has long been ready to exchange prisoners, but would not succumb to blackmail from representatives of the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass. She wrote about this on her page on the social network Facebook .

She recalled that over the past 14 months, there have been no exchange of prisoners at all. “We are ready to transfer everyone who allows Ukrainian legislation to pick up confirmed Ukrainians. But we will not go on blackmail and cannot let them go into the will of those who do not fall under the action of the Minsk agreements, for example, “Berkutovites”, who are suspected of killing the heroes of heavenly hundreds, ”the RBC news agency quoted her explanations.

Georgy Chizhov, Vice President, Head of the Ukrainian Bureau of the Center for Political Technology Foundation, agreed to comment on the situation for Polit.ru. In his opinion, progress in this matter is quite likely - and it is quite possible that thereby the President of Russia will show the effectiveness of his participation.

Georgy Chizhov

“I will not give complete clarity in this matter, but it seems that the topic related to the promotion of settlement in the Donbass becomes real. Perhaps this is due to the efforts of the American special representative [Kurt] Volker. If at first both the Ukrainian and the Russian side were very skeptical of this and did not really believe in advance, now they see: a person is straining and forces both sides to move.

In fact, the exchange of prisoners is a direction in which progress was progress until a certain moment. From everything that the contact group developed in Minsk, it was mainly applicable mainly. All other conditions of settlement were observed poorly enough - such as a ceasefire, for example. But from some point, the exchange has actually stopped.

In Ukraine, everyone is sure that this happened due to the position of the Russian side and separatists. Apparently, this is true. Nadezhda Savchenko tried to use this circumstance in her agitation: she said that she was organizing an exchange. We remember that she really went to negotiate and even contacted representatives of the LPR and the DPR. However, this did not bring any result.

And now ... It is difficult to say why Vladimir Putin personally joined this - perhaps this is due to the informally beginning presidential campaign. In principle, the President of Russia may demonstrate his effectiveness here, because they really want this exchange from the Ukrainian side, and Putin’s intervention can give noticeable results.

Well, and, in addition, it is possible that in this way, showing a humanitarian initiative, the Russian leader still wants to try to establish relations with the West. After this famous four-second meeting with Trump, it may have arisen that somehow the dialogue with the United States still needs to be built. And here-please, there is, a person does something.

Captured exchange point / svoboda.org

These are my assumptions. In fact, what was supposed to happen for a long time and was artificially frozen, now some continuation can get. And I think it is very good, if this happens. Because you have to return people home - regardless of how the problem is solved globally.

Can it be that the calculation was made precisely for progress in the exchange of prisoners will somehow affect the settlement in general? In fact, maybe the exchange for it will not affect it - but the movement at least one of the aspects of the settlement can give the feeling that the process is not standing still. This will not be news, of course - because, as I said, it was precisely in this direction that the movement until a certain moment happened.

And most importantly - that the Russian president is not substituted, speaking with such initiatives. After all, he is trying to avoid actions that clearly “signed” in the fact that Russia is a side of the conflict. And here there is no such risk: Russia may not be a side of the conflict, but at the same time show the initiative to resolve individual humanitarian issues. This is, as it were, participation in the settlement process, but does not require recognition of some role of Russia, ”said Georgy Chizhov.