Donetsk, Dec 6 – DAN. Humanitarian and economic Donbass settlement issues should be resolved by lifting the blockade of the region and granting amnesty to all conflict participants and political prisoners, DPR Head Aleksander Zakharchenko said in a special statement on Tuesday.
“Lifting of economic blockade and amnesty for all conflicts participants and political prisoners should precede the solution of humanitarian and economic issues,” Zakharchenko said. “Consider: ‘all-for-all’ prisoner exchange requires an amnesty law, and in the same way blockade should be lifted before solving all humanitarian and economic issues.”
Kiev representative in the Contact Group humanitarian subgroup Irina Gerashchenko wrote on Facebook on Monday that at the 7 December Minsk talks Kiev would insist on supplies of humanitarian cargoes to Donbass, environmental problems solution, displaced persons support and population’s access to medical services.
Kiev launched Donbass economic blockade on 15 November 2014, as Ukrainian President Petr Poroshenko signed a decree halting all social payments in the conflict zone, including pensions. Ukraine also banned supplies of medications and foodstuffs to the region.
Kiev has refused to attend the last six sessions of the economic subgroup in Minsk.