KIEV/MOSCOW — Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the east completed a large-scale prisoner swap on Sunday after bussing scores of detainees in the five-year conflict to an exchange point in the breakaway Donbass region. Ukraine said 76 pro-government detainees were handed over, while separatists said they took 120 of their prisoners during the swap at a checkpoint near the industrial town of Horlivka. He thanked fellow leaders of the so-called “Normandy Four” group – Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany – for helping mediate the swap during talks in Paris earlier this month. “The prisoner swap that was completed today is a long-awaited humanitarian measure,” they said in a joint statement, calling for full implementation of a ceasefire. In the last swap, in December 2017, Ukraine handed over about 300 captives in exchange for around 70 people.

Source: National Post December 29, 2019 21:11 UTC