Prisoner swap with rebels in peace bid
MAIORSK CHECKPOINT, Ukraine — National forces and Russiabacked rebels in eastern Ukraine exchanged 200 prisoners Sunday in a move aimed at ending their fiveyear war.
The swap at a checkpoint near the rebelheld city of Horlivka was part of an agreement brokered this month at a summit of the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France.
According to figures from officials of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s republics — the two separatist governments in the rebel area — Ukraine turned over 124 people and the separatists freed 76.
Those released by Ukraine included five former members of the nowdisbanded special police force Berkut who were charged in the killing of protesters in Kyiv in 2014, Ukrainian news site Hromadske quoted their lawyer, Igor Varfolomeyev, as saying.
The Security Service of Ukraine said the 76 freed by the rebels included 12 servicemen, two of whom had been held since 2015 after being ambushed while escorting a convoy of wounded out of the battle of Debaltseve, which destroyed much of the city.
U.S.funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said two of its contributors, Stanislav Aseyev and Oleh Halaziuk, were among the released; they were taken captive in 2017.
A representative of the Luhansk rebels, Olga Kovtseva, was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying those released to her side included five Russian citizens and one from Brazil.
The last major prisoner swap between separatist rebels and Ukrainian forces took place in December 2017, with 233 rebels exchanged for 73 Ukrainians.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 14,000 people since 2014. It began about two months after Ukraine’s Russiafriendly president fled the country amid mass protests in Kyiv. Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula soon followed.
Hopes for ending the fighting have risen since the election of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has been more amenable to negotiations with Russia on ending the war.
The leader of the Luhansk People’s Republic, Leonid Pasechnik, praised the exchange as the rebels’ “latest victory.”