Donetsk, Dec 19 - DAN. The Donbass Republics and Ukraine will continue the prisoner exchange talks in the format of video conference, Donetsk People’s Republic envoy to the Minsk talks, the Republic’s Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova said late on Wednesday following the Contact Group meeting.
“We agreed to proactively work towards prisoner exchange and hold a video conference,” Russia’s TASS news agency quoted Nikonorova as saying.
Earlier reports said that Ukraine had failed the arrangements for the prisoner exchange with the Donbass Republics agreed at the “Normandy Four” meeting.
On December 9, Paris hosted a summit of the leaders of the “Normandy Four” states (Germany, Russia, France, Ukraine). In the course of the negotiations, the the parties prepared an outcome document stating that a number of accords had been reached. One of the expected results was the decision to carry out a prisoner exchange in Donbass under the “all verified for all verified” principle before the New Year.*jk