Ukraine ready to swap Donbas hostages under "42 for 228" formula

18:12, 07.12.2016 1 min read

Ukraine's representative in the TCG's humanitarian subgroup, Verkhovna Rada’s Vice-Speaker Iryna Gerashchenko has said that the Ukrainian side is ready to transfer to ORDLO (occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions) the very number of people they say, but the opposite side strongly underestimates the data, and Kyiv will insist on the liberation of the maximum number of Ukrainians.

"We insist on the release of the maximum number of hostages before the Christmas holidays. Today ORDLO said that they held 42 Ukrainians. We have stated the offer to immediately transfer 228 of those citizens (in cases where it is permitted under the law and the legal framework), which they requested in their demands for the immediate release of 42 Ukrainians ... and then to work further on the search and the release of all the rest. We have heard in response that ORDLO is ready to release only eight Ukrainians ....," she wrote on her Facebook page following the results of the work of humanitarian subgroups.