Kuchma blames DPR, LPR for thwarting Easter prisoner swap

15:45, 06.05.2016 1 min read

The Easter prisoner swap was thwarted because armed opponents of the Kyiv authorities had changed their position, Ukrainian representative to the Trilateral Contact Group, Leonid Kuchma, has said.

"They are not interested in doing so. They always want some mechanisms for influencing Ukraine, public sentiment," Kuchma told the press in Kyiv, on Friday.

In the opinion of Kuchma, everything depends on the position of the Russian administration which, he believes, has an influence on the LPR and the DPR. "All of us are perfectly aware that everything depends on the position of Moscow. The exchange would have happened if the order had been given. They were told to stall, and they stalled the process," Kuchma said.

He said the issue would be raised at the next meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk.

A "20 for 50" prisoner swap was planned to take place in Donbas, in late April, shortly before Easter. Yet, Ukrainian representative to the Trilateral Contact Group's humanitarian subgroup, Iryna Gerashchenko, said that process was thwarted.