Kiev has refused to take prisoners whom the republics prepared for a POW swap — Daria Morozova

Shortly before, chief of the Ukrainian presidential office Andrey Yermak accused DPR and LPR representatives of failing to fulfil the Minsk Agreements, DPR Human Rights Commissioner Daria Morozova commented on that statement.

“We were astonished at yesterday’s speech by Andrey Yermak about the implementation of the Minsk Agreements. In particular, the chief of the Ukrainian presidential office claimed that allegedly “there were issues that we (Ukraine) on our part had fully addressed, but the other party (the DPR) did not adhere to the obligations that had been agreed”. In this regard, I would like to comment on Mr. Yermak’s statement from the perspective of one of the most important issues the TCG humanitarian subgroup raised at the last meeting, particularly the issue of POW exchange. As a matter of fact, it was the only issue during whose discussion Mr. Yermak was personally present at the video conference of the Contact Group on March 26.

Before that meeting, DPR representatives, who in Mr. Yermak’s opinion “do not adhere to the obligations”, had managed to establish the whereabouts of 8 people and fully prepare them for an exchange for further transfer to Ukraine. In turn, the Ukrainian party confirmed only 10 people, neglecting to inform whether those persons were ready for the exchange.

Also, I would like to remind him that it was we at the meeting, not Mr. Yermak, who proposed exchanging the prisoners on March 29, so that they could return home to their relatives and families, so then we could continue the really difficult work to establish the whereabouts of other persons, whom the parties search for in their territories, and prepare for them the exchange.

The chief of the presidential office has somehow forgotten that the Ukrainian party rejected this proposal explicitly. At first, on the pretext that they allegedly would not have time to prepare 10 people for the exchange so fast. Then the representatives of Ukraine cynically claimed that they would not take 8 people then, as they wanted to take many more later on.

In this regard, we have decided to make public the names of the people who could have been returned to Ukraine last Sunday, but the Ukrainian authorities refused to take them.

Here is a list of these people:

1. Aleksandr F. Alakoz born July 26, 1991;
2. Nikolay N. Grinenko born June 9, 1998;
3. Nikolay V. Ilyukhin born November 25, 1959;
4. Vladimir V. Karas born June 29,1968;
5. Evgeniy I. Kostev born May, 1980;
6. Aleksandr V. Pomeliayko born September 21, 1986;
7. Aleksandr P. Sadovskiy born May 12, 1976;
8. Viktor A. Shaydov born October 27, 1970.

We express our hope that Mr. Yermak will find courage and time to apologize to the families and relatives of the people about whom the presidential office’s chief loves talking on the media, alleging his hopes to bring them home,” Daria Morozova said.