Ukraine, pro-Russian rebels swap prisoners

Ukrainian state forces and pro-Russian rebel groups exchanged dozens of prisoners yesterday in this year’s first exchange amid renewed efforts to end the conflict near the Russian border.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, inaugurated last year, has set out as his top priority to end the conflict in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

“We will continue to fight until we have returned every Ukrainian [prisoner] to their home,” Zelenskiy said in a video posted yesterday.

The Ukrainian side announced that it had received 20 prisoners from the Donetsk and Luhansk rebel groups.

The rebels received 14 prisoners from the Ukrainian side.

“Despite the spread of the coronavirus and the onset of the global economic crisis ... Zelenskiy continues to work for peace ... and the return of people and territories to Ukraine,” the president’s office stated.

Two previous exchanges occurred last year for the release of about 270 prisoners.

The conflict erupted six years ago when Ukraine ousted its pro-Russian president at the time, in a political pivot towards the West.

About 13,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to estimates by the United Nations.

All attempted ceasefires have been violated, according to independent monitoring by the Organisation for Security and

Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

The OSCE’s special representative in Ukraine, Heidi Grau, welcomed yesterday’s exchange as an achievement that could strengthen trust for taking further steps on a peace plan previously agreed in neutral Belarus.

“This step, made in advance of the Orthodox Easter, has a special symbolic resonance,” she said in a statement. “I do hope that it will contribute to strengthen trust between the sides while implementing other provisions of the Minsk agreements.”