MOSCOW. Dec 26 (Interfax) - The self-proclaimed LPR and DPR are handing over two captured women to Ukrainian representative Nadiya Savchenko as a goodwill gesture, a report posted on the website of the Luhansk Information Center said.
"As a goodwill gesture before the New Year and Christmas we are handing over, without any preconditions, to Nadiya Savchenko, a representative of the people of Ukraine, two women, Angelika Presnyakova and Olga Svorak, in the hope of intensifying the process of release of our citizens, in the hope that they will be reunited with their relatives and loved ones next year," the LPR and DPR leaders said in their statement.
The document said the self-proclaimed republics remain open to dialogue with those representatives of the people of Ukraine who are really committed to implementing the Minsk Agreements.
For his part, Yuriy Tandit, adviser to the SBU chief, welcomed this decision.
"We will be happy about any release. Not only our Minsk group, but also experts, volunteers, and public figures are working to achieve a result. But we are glad that some of our citizens are being handed over through politicians. In actuality, the main thing is people's release. The main thing is that the 'LPR' and the 'DPR' should not use that to achieve ulterior motives," he said in a commentary to Interfax on Monday.
"We would not like everything to stop with the release of these two women," Tandit said.
Responding to a question as to when these two women might be handed over to Savchenko, he said: "We are not commenting on this information, but I think it will happen in the nearest future."
Iryna Herashchenko, first deputy speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and Ukraine's representative in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group, also supported the prisoners' handover.
"We are happy about every person's release. If the handover by Ukraine of 15 of those who were requested by ORDLO, including six women, promotes the release and unblocks this process, we are happy," she told Interfax.