28 Dec 2017 12:36

Russians held in Ukrainian prisons to be swapped for Ukrainians imprisoned in Russia - Poroshenko

KYIV. Dec 28 (Interfax) - Russian citizens serving prison terms in Ukraine should be swapped for Ukrainians held in Russian prisons, which is why none of these Russians was exchanged for Ukrainians during the exchange of captives between Kyiv and the self-proclaimed Donbas republics on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said.

"More efforts will be made to pull our citizens out of Russian prisons, from the occupied Crimea, and this is why we didn't give away a single Russian today," Poroshenko said in a commentary for Strana.UA at Kyiv's Boryspil airport, after a plane carrying Ukrainians freed from captivity in Donbas landed late on Wednesday.

More than 15 Russian citizens held in Ukrainian prisons should be earmarked for returning Roman Sushchenko, Oleh Sentsov, Oleksandr Kolchenko, Stanislav Klykh, Mykola Karpyuk and others to Ukraine, Poroshenko said.