Friday captive exchange fails as LPR, DPR offer less hostages than they promised in Minsk– SBU advisor

09:34, 17.10.2015 1 min read

An exchange of captives between Kyiv and the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republic (LPR, DPR) scheduled for October 16 has failed because the militants offered only five hostages, whereas at the talks in Minsk they promised to exchange eight, adviser of the Ukrainian Security Council (SBU) chief Yuri Tandit told Interfax-Ukraine.

"Already for several weeks the Ukrainian bodies, which are working on the release of hostages, are ready to hand over people who associate themselves with LPR/DPR, to that side. And we have already started negotiating the details of the swap. But, unfortunately, they [talks] are foiled," he said.

Tandit said that the Ukrainian side was ready to hand over ten people, but this did not take place and there is no Ukrainian fault in this.