The announced prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine is delayed. An agreement later this year is hardly realistic after a meeting of mediators from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), according to news agencies.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadim Pristaiko said on Ukrainian television: "I see for today that no progress has been made." At the Paris summit last week, an exchange of 250 prisoners from Kiev for 100 from Luhansk and Donetsk had been agreed by the end of December.
The Russian representative in the contact group, Boris Gryslow, accused Kiev of failing to follow the prisoner exchange procedure. In addition, the Ukrainian side does not want to discuss the withdrawal of its army along the line of contact.
Next meeting in mid-January
According to the Interfax agency, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) spoke of "various technical problems that need to be resolved". The parties to the conflict would have to take a number of steps for an exchange of prisoners before the end of the year. The next contact group meeting is scheduled for January 16.
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Ukrainian government troops and pro-Russian separatists face each other in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. According to UN estimates, around 13,000 people have died since 2014.