KYIV. Feb 13 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian side at the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) talks in Minsk proposed several formats for a prisoner exchange, none of which was accepted, according to Ukraine's envoy to the humanitarian subgroup, Iryna Herashchenko.
"Once again, we proposed that Russia take 25 of its citizens, and we offered various formats for the release: a broad 25/25 one, a 19/72 one, and several other formats. If Russia is not prepared to take everyone, we offered several narrow formats to unblock the process, to start the release with those in need of medical treatment. We are also ready to hand over three Russians from the list of 25 to Russian consuls in exchange for soldiers of ours who have been held captive in Donetsk for four years...but the Russians did not agree to this, either," Herashchenko wrote on Facebook.
Ukraine reiterated its demand that the sailors who were captured in the Kerch Strait be released immediately and with no preconditions, she wrote. Russia's representative Boris Gryzlov replied that Minsk was not the platform for discussing their fate.
Ukraine also called for a more active search for the hundreds of people who are missing and the creation of a relevant mechanism that would include Russia and the International Committee of the Red Cross, Herashchenko wrote.
Earlier, Boris Gryzlov, Russia's TCG envoy, said that Russia had asked the OSCE to press Kyiv to release Donbas prisoners under the "all-for-all" principle as soon as possible.