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Ukraine army begins to swap captives with rebel forces Ukraine army swaps hundreds of captives with rebel forces
(about 5 hours later)
The Ukrainian army has begun swapping soldiers with pro-Russia rebels under the terms of a preliminary deal agreed in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. Ukrainian authorities and separatists exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war on Friday, a spokesman for President Petro Poroshenko said, part of a 12-point plan aimed at ending the pro-Russian uprising in the east of the country.
The exchange began with 30 captives from each side and by it was expected to involve 222 separatist fighters and 150 Ukrainian troops. The agreement to swap 150 Ukrainian servicemen for 222 rebels followed peace talks between envoys of Ukraine, Russia, the separatists and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on Wednesday.
The deal, the largest by far in the eight-month separatist war, was arranged on Wednesday with the help of Russian and European envoys. “The head of the SBU [security service] reported the release of 146 Ukrainians to the president. The SBU expects another four prisoners to be released tomorrow. They will all be able to celebrate new year ... with their families,” a spokesman, Svyatoslav Tsegolko, said in a Facebook post.
The negotiators are trying to iron out a broader agreement that involves a ceasefire and a troop and weapons withdrawal from the frontline that cuts across the mostly Russian-speaking industrial east of the former Soviet republic. Earlier, an SBU aide said 225 rebels would be handed over in exchange for the Ukrainian soldiers.
State security sources in Kiev said the separatists would still be holding about 500 government soldiers after the exchange. The same source said Ukraine would be willing to swap them for several dozen rebels still held in jails. The uprising by separatists began a month after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in March, following the popular overthrow of Ukraine’s Moscow-backed president. The conflict has killed more than 4,700 people.
Friday’s exchange was being conducted in the neutral town of Kostyantynivka, about 30 miles north of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk. Kiev’s pro-western government says Russia orchestrated the rebellion in Ukraine’s east, a charge denied by Moscow.
Commanders from both sides met on a roadside and read out names from prepared lists of prisoners to be exchanged in batches of 10 from each side. The peace protocol agreed by Kiev and rebels in September also includes a ceasefire. Most of the plan has not been implemented because of repeated violations of the ceasefire and because separatists defied Kiev by holding leadership elections.
The captives were all wearing civilian clothing and clutching small bags with their belongings as they stood about 100 yards apart along the side of the road and waited for their names to be called. It is not known exactly how many prisoners are held by the two sides, but Ukraine’s military said this month about 600 Ukrainians were in rebel hands.
Wednesday’s agreement had required the Ukrainian side to bring 225 captives. It was not immediately clear why three were missing from the exchange on Friday. Some 1,300 people have been killed since the ceasefire was agreed in September, according to the United Nations, but the fighting lessened significantly in December.
Meanwhile, Ukraine announced it had cut train, bus and power services to Crimea. The international credit card firms Visa and Mastercard said they would no longer support services in the Russian-annexed territory because of US sanctions imposed this month. On Friday, however, the military said rebels had slightly stepped up their attacks on Ukrainian positions in the east and reported that a Ukrainian serviceman had been killed in the previous 24 hours.
The moves leave the Crimean peninsula increasingly isolated physically and politically. Train services from Ukraine will run only to nearby stations on the mainland, to ensure “traffic safety”, the state railways firm said. “In the past two days, [rebel] fighters started using artillery and Grad rocket launchers. Attacks have intensified to a minor extent,” military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told Reuters. “Rebels are using the ceasefire to regroup their forces,” he said later in a televised briefing.
Further peace talks between Ukraine, Russia, the separatists and the OSCE had been expected to take place in Minsk on Friday, but OSCE chairperson-in-office Didier Burkhalter said in a statement the meeting had not taken place and expressed the hope it would be rescheduled as soon as possible.
Burkhalter said the purpose of the talks was to make further progress in four key areas of the Minsk protocol: implementation of the ceasefire, release of hostages, delivery of humanitarian aid and some economic issues.