Arestovich: Kiev is ready to immediately begin the exchange of prisoners with the DPR and LPR
Photo: Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters
Oleksiy Arestovich, advisor to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, speaker of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group, said that Kiev was ready to immediately begin an exchange of prisoners with the unrecognized Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), transferring 58-59 people, but they did not meet halfway in Donbass. He said this on the air of the TV channel “Dom”.
According to him, the Ukrainian authorities proposed a number of prisoner exchange scenarios to the DPR and LPR. “We are ready to exchange any day. We are ready to exchange for Christmas, for New Year. But they do not agree to this, tying everything to political exchanges, ”he said.
Arestovich stressed that as a condition for starting the process of exchange of prisoners, Kiev is required to recognize the authorities of the DPR and LPR.
On December 21, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, at an expanded meeting of the Defense Ministry board with the participation of President Vladimir Putin, said that US private military companies were preparing a provocation with chemical components in eastern Ukraine. According to the head of the Russian Defense Ministry, about 120 representatives of private military companies from the United States are already in Ukraine.
