Ukraine prisoner swap scheme cut down to 50 for 50, no date yet - DPR
DONETSK. Sept 27 (Interfax) - According to preliminary reports from the prisoner exchange committee of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), the next swap with the Ukrainians will be held in the 50 for 50 format.
"So far we are preparing a 50 for 50, the swap date will not be known before a number of issues have been settled with the Ukrainian side," the committee told Interfax on Saturday.
It was reported that the 60 for 60 swap was postponed three times already, the last time the date announced by DPR first deputy prime minister Andrei Purgin was September 27.
Under the protocol signed by the Contact Group as a result of their Minsk consultations on September 5, DPR militias conducted their first exchange of 36 Ukrainians captives for 31 Donbas representatives on September 11.
The second swap, with each side freeing 28 captives, took place 30 kilometers away from Donetsk on September 21.
On September 20 DPR militias and Ukraine released 38 captives each.
The swap on September 14 saw 73 freed by each side.
The swaps were carried out in the presence of representatives from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
Meanwhile, Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko said last Thursday that Donbas militias were not complying with the agreement reached in Minsk on September 5 to swap "all for all."
"I stress that the agreement to free all for all is not being complied with by the other side," Poroshenko told a press conference.