The first round of the 2021 talks of the Contact Group’s humanitarian subgroup did not meet the hopes for constructive dialogue. Among other things, representatives of Kiev continue to sabotage the crucial question of detainees’ exchange, Commissioner for Human Rights in the Donetsk People’s Republic Darya Morozova commented on the results of the humanitarian subgroup’s negotiations.
“Once again Ukraine has not provided any information about the “procedural clearance” of 50 persons previously transferred to the territory of the DPR as part of the exchange. Let me remind you that a year has passed since the moment when Kiev was supposed to terminate criminal prosecution against these citizens. However, Ukraine has not fulfilled yet its obligations and leaves any questions regarding the procedure unanswered. Moreover, today Kiev’s representatives even tried to blackmail the Republic on that subject by offering “procedural clearance” in exchange for negotiation on a new stage of the exchange. I consider such statements to be blatant insinuations. And I emphasize once again that the conditions for unlocking the discussion on the exchange of detainees between the DPR and Ukraine have not changed: Kiev must confirm its commitment to the Complex of Measures and stop persecuting the people previously released, as required by the relevant documents signed by the parties.
As of today, the lack of progress in the exchange issue is absolutely the fault of Kiev, which cynically manipulates people’s fates in pursuit of political advantage. The fact that the Ukrainian side is not interested in new stages of the exchange is also evidenced by the following: numerous requests from the DPR about the status of citizens searched for by the Republic remain unanswered. Without this information, it is simply impossible to form new lists for the exchange.
In general, today during the humanitarian subgroup’s meeting, we heard a lot of emotional phrases from representatives of Ukraine and they were actively engaged in polemics. However, they did not utter any single fact or substantive proposal. Ukrainian negotiators never answered any of the questions posed by representatives of the Republics or the coordinator of the group. There is no point in parsing and recounting all the verbal flow of our counterparts. I will note that such behavior indicates two things. First, Kiev is keeping to last year’s destructive negotiating line and continues to bring work at the Minsk venue to a standstill. Second, the people representing Ukraine in the negotiation process on Donbass, mildly speaking, are not familiar with the issue they are in charge of,” Darya Morozova claimed.
