MOSCOW. Feb 13 (Interfax) - The number of captives from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) confirmed by Ukraine has grown from 86 to 101, the newspaper Izvestia said on Wednesday, citing the press service of DPR human rights commissioner Darya Morozova.
"As of now, Ukraine has confirmed the presence of 101 out of 252 captives on its territory, the press service of Darya Morozova told Izvestia. Kyiv said earlier that it was holding 86 DPR residents captive. In the meantime, Donetsk confirmed the presence of 15 Ukrainians on its territory and said it was ready to exchange them for 'everyone confirmed'," the newspaper said.
Morozova told Izvestia that Kyiv had recently offered "to exchange 33 persons for 11."
"Allegedly, they were unable to prepare procedurally for the exchange of the rest. We analyzed the list and found that those individuals in no way differed from the ones they were 'unable to clear'. As we understand it, the Ukrainian side is just stalling and wants to make a demonstrative exchange instead of fulfilling this clause of the Minsk Agreements in its entirety. We insist on an all-for-all exchange. I think this move has been made as part of the election campaign, to show the Ukrainian president's involvement in the process. But this doesn't reflect reality, because one single political decision of Poroshenko would have been sufficient for the exchange to happen in January 2018, as he promised," Morozova told Izvestia.
It was reported earlier that the DPR was ready to discuss exchanges of prisoner only with official negotiators from Kyiv in Minsk and in an "all confirmed for all confirmed" format.