Separatist republics inform Kiev about the whereabouts of 45 prisoners
Representatives of the separatist republics let Kiev know the whereabouts of 45 Ukrainian prisoners. The date of their release is unknown at the moment.
On Wednesday, August 3 on TV channel 112.Ukraine, Yuriy Tandit, the advisor to the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), stated that representatives from the so-called LPR and DPR, which control certain regions of the Donbas, disclosed the whereabouts of 45 Ukrainian prisoners to representatives from Kiev at the meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk.
He added that Ukraine is ready to accept them at any time.
“Unfortunately, I have the impression that certain representatives from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions don’t want to talk about a particular day and place of release,” he said. Tandit also said that there are differences in the assessment of how many Ukrainian prisoners are of interest to them; he knows of about 618 people. The advisor to the head of the SSU hopes that the exchange of prisoners will take place soon.
Darka Olifer, press secretary of the Ukrainian representative in the Trilateral Contact Group, Leonid Kuchma, reported on her Facebook page that, according to Kiev, 197 Ukrainians are being held captive in the Donbas. Olifer says that Kiev insists on the International Committee of the Red Cross’s full involvement in the release process, and that they should also be granted access to the prisoners and be informed of their whereabouts.