DPR Commissioner for Human Rights Darya Morozova spoke about the problems with the prisoner exchange, which arise through the fault of the Ukrainian side, in an interview with a correspondent of the DPR Official Website.
“This is a topical issue for us, because for two years we have been calling on Ukraine to set free our supporters. The last exchange took place on December 27, 2017. The Ukrainian side called it the first stage of the exchange, but the second stage has not happened yet,” Darya Morozova stressed.
She also noted that there are certain aspects that the ombudsperson’s office focuses on.
“For us it is very important to carry out the procedural clearance of those people whom Ukraine must release. As previous experience shows, our citizens face great obstacles in paperwork, obtaining passports of the DPR and Russia. That is, their civil rights are encroached on.
Therefore, our first condition to the Ukrainian side is the full procedural clearance and they supported us at once. But the clearance mechanism has never been implemented in full. That is, the people are not exempted from criminal liability completely. We are interested in the final result, but the Ukrainian party does not give any guarantees.
Another matter is the verification. Ukraine has been carrying out the unilateral verification for several months and we categorically disagree to it. There are still 20% of the people who need to be interviewed by representatives who inspire our trust, since they are left either unaware or under pressure to make them decide to stay in Ukraine.
We face the lack of political on the part of Ukraine to carry out a prisoner swap. But I am sure that as soon as the Ukrainian leadership has the political intention to carry out the exchange, all manipulations will turn to dust,” Darya Morozova stated.