Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists in the Donbas have agreed to exchange a total of 277 prisoners, Ukraine’s envoy said on July 18.
The deal foresees that 69 Ukrainians held captive on the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts will be swapped for 208 persons held in Ukrainian prisons.
“The preparation for their release has begun, but the legal clearance of some (prisoners) may take months since all prisoners are in different categories,” said Roman Bezsmertnyi, political envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group which gathered in Minsk on July 17.
The last prisoner swap took place 19 months ago in late December 2017. Ukraine released 306 prisoners in exchange for 74 held by the Russia-backed separatists.
After taking office less than two months ago, President Volodymyr Zelensky reshuffled Ukraine’s delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group, which also includes Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Former President Leonid Kuchma leads the delegation again, and Bezsmertnyi is back to representing Ukraine in the political subgroup. Both also served in these roles under former President Petro Poroshenko.
The Trilateral Contact Group seeks diplomatic ways to bring peace to the Donbas. The war there has already killed some 13,000 people over five years, according to UN figures.
The contact group’s meetings involve leaders of the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, whose authority Kyiv doesn’t recognize. For this reason, the Ukrainian government refuses to hold direct talks with them. However, the Russia-backed leaders are not official members of the group.
At the meeting, Ukraine and Russia also agreed to an “indefinite” ceasefire starting July 21.
Prisoner swap with Russia
There are a number of Ukrainians held as prisoners of war and political prisoners in Russia and Russia-occupied Crimea, whose release is also under discussion. Some of them have serious health issues and require urgent medical care.
Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, Lyudmila Denisova, passed a list of 150 names to her Russian counterpart, Tatyana Moskalkova, during their meeting in Moscow on July 16. It is unknown how many people Russia requested in return.
The list submitted by Denisova included 24 Ukrainian sailors detained in November 2018 in the Kerch Strait and accused by Russian authorities of trespassing in Russia’s territorial waters. In March, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea obliged Russia to free them. Moscow has ignored that ruling.
Not only have the sailors been in detention for eight months, but on July 17 a Moscow court also extended their arrest for another three.
“Russia doesn’t have to abide by the ruling of the international tribunal but respects it and is open for dialogue with Ukraine,” said Moskalkova.
The Ukrainian sailors’ release was a key issue that President Zelensky raised in his first phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 11.
As for Oleg Sentsov, a Ukrainian filmmaker and writer sentenced to 20 years in Russian prison on terrorism charges widely viewed as politically motivated, Moskalkova insisted he holds Russian citizenship. Sentsov has denied ever receiving a Russia passport.
Denisova appealed to Moskalkova to allow doctors to visit Ukrainian Pavlo Hryb, sentenced to 6 years in prison for “abetting terrorism.” His family deems the charges fabricated. Gryb was only 19 when he was kidnapped by Russian security agents in Belarus in August 2017 and illegally transferred to Russia.
The health of Crimean farmer Volodymyr Balukh continues to deteriorate after over 2.5 years in detention and multiple hunger strikes. He is now serving his five-year term in a prison in the city of Tver for allegedly storing ammunition and explosives at his home and later attacking the head of the temporary detention center where he was being held.
Like Balukh, Crimean Tatar activist Edem Bekirov, a 57-year old amputee who cannot walk without a crutch, was accused by Russian-appointed law enforcement in Crimea of illegally storing and transporting 10 kilograms of explosives and ammunition. He has been detained since last December, despite urgently requiring hospitalization.
At the July 12 meeting in Paris, advisers to the leaders of the Normandy Four countries — Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France — reached an agreement to swap “a certain number” of prisoners within a month.
“President Zelensky said 10 for 10, 15 for 15. We don’t fixate on the number of people — our task is to exchange now, return our people home and unblock the ‘all for all’ process,” said Vadym Prystaiko, deputy head of the presidential office, on July 16.
