LUHANSK, September 10 (RIA Novosti) – The self-proclaimed people’s republics of Luhansk and Donetsk (LPR and DPR) are set to negotiate prisoner exchange with the Kiev government jointly, LPR Prime Minister Igor Plotnitsky said Wednesday.
“We are still in talks with the Donetsk People’s Republic in order to negotiate as a single entity, a single commonwealth. These issues are being negotiated,” Plotnitsky told reporters.
On September 7, Plotnitsky said that the two republics were ready to return to the Ukrainian side all captured Ukrainian military personnel that are listed. He also said that they hoped to complete procedures that enable the prisoner exchange in the next few days.
During the meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine in Minsk on September 5, the representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) agreed to a ceasefire between the Kiev forces and independence supporters. The sides also agreed to the international monitoring of the truce implementation, the “all to all” prisoner exchange and humanitarian aid access to the troubled regions.
Ukrainian authorities have been conducting a military operation against independence supporters in eastern Ukraine since mid-April. The latter proclaimed independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in May, after they had refused to acknowledge the new government that had come to power after the February coup.
The confrontation in the east of Ukraine has so far claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people, with about 6,000 people injured, according to United Nation estimates.
