DONETSK. June 1 (Interfax) - It has been six months since the latest prisoner swap between Ukraine and the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), but there is no further progress in this issue, DPR human rights ombudsman Darya Morozova told reporters on Friday.
"While discussing a prisoner swap in the format of 'all identified persons for all identified persons' the republics once again confirmed their complete readiness for the soonest possible release of people, unlike the Ukrainian side, which is willing to undertake a swap only in its statements, but with no real steps taken yet," she said at the talks in the humanitarian subgroup in Minsk.
The DPR still cannot attain that the Ukrainian side will express its official stance on the issues, which remained open in the wake of the latest swap, she said. The point is about the release of other countries' citizens, who were connected to the self-proclaimed republics, and some are DPR and LPR citizens, the return of documents and determining the procedural status of previously freed persons.
"The Ukrainian side has done no work which gives absolutely no opportunity to even get closer to undertaking the second stage of swap, and, on the contrary, distances us from this. Ukrainian representatives are fully to blame for delaying the swap. I want to note that already six months have passed since the latest swap, and we have not advanced further for this period of time, because the Ukrainian side is thinking of new excuses each time," Morozova said.
Efforts to achieve that the Ukrainian side will hand over persons convicted since the beginning of the crisis and wishing to serve their sentence in Ukraine were also stopped, she also said.
"We have established ties with the former Ukrainian ombudsman; we have regularly handed over prisoners to Ukraine so that they could serve their further sentence there. Following the appointment of the new envoy efforts on this issue have been completely ceased for unclear reasons. Long ago, we prepared another group of persons, who wished to serve their sentence in Ukraine, but as Kyiv representatives are not getting in touch with us, the process is stalled," the DPR envoy said.
At the same time, the parties also failed to achieve any headway at the Minsk meeting while discussing the search for missing persons, she said.
"This is caused by the fact that female members of the Ukrainian delegation have attended talks only thrice over the past six months, despite the fact that meetings are held twice a month. All of those agreements earlier reached at the talks again remain unclear, because Ukrainian representatives obviously have different opinions and positions on this issue," Morozova said.