Editors note: The livestream video has concluded but this story is being updated as it develops.
Ukraine and Russian-backed militants in the eastern Donbas region began a major prisoner exchange on Dec. 29.
The swap is taking place at the Mayorsk crossing point that connects Ukrainian government-controlled Donbas and Russian-controlled parts of the region.
Between 100 and 200 prisoners are expected to be exchanged by the two sides, but the exact number and the lists of specific individuals are still being finalized and verified, officials said.
On the afternoon of Dec. 29, Lullia Mendel, the official spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that 76 Ukrainians had been safely returned to territory controlled by Ukraine and that the exchange was complete.
The exchange is expected to be the second-largest prisoner swap between the two sides in two years and the most controversial one since the beginning of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The conflict has claimed more than 14,000 lives and left more than one million displaced since its start in 2014.
Russian proxies are expected to release mostly Ukrainian soldiers captured during the war, but also some local civilians who were arrested for their support of Ukraine.
To get them back, the Ukrainian side has already released many people who had no connection to the war and has sent them to the Mayorsk checkpoint in the Donbas for the exchange.
Five former Ukrainian police officers of the now-disbanded Berkut riot unit are among those waiting to be handed over to Russian forces. They are charged with shooting and killing dozens of unarmed protesters during the EuroMaidan Revolution that ousted the corrupt Russia-backed president Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014.
The night before the exchange, a court in Kyiv released those five Berkut officers amid protests by activists and lawyers of the families of about 100 people killed during the EuroMaidan. Activists unsuccessfully attempted to block the Lukyanivsky detention center in Kyiv, trying to prevent the Berkut officers from leaving.
Preliminary agreements on the current prisoner exchange were made in early December during talks between Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Paris on Dec. 9.
The last big prisoner swap between Ukraine and Russian forces in the Donbas took place on Dec. 27, 2017. Ukraine received 73 prisoners, predominantly soldiers, and handed over 233 pro-Russian militants or activists.
