Kuchma hopes hostage release takes place before 2018

15:18, 17.11.2017 1 min read

Ukraine's second president (1994-2005) Leonid Kuchma, a representative of the Trilateral Contact Group for regulating the situation in Donbas, has said that there have been no prisoner exchanges with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR/LPR) this year.

"If an exchange takes place this year it will be a great joy. I hope this take place. But, after having spent 14 months discussing this in Minsk and no exchanges have taken place, it raises a question," Kuchma told journalists in Kyiv.

The ex-president said resolution of the conflict in Donbas "depends on God and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin."

As earlier reported, on November 15, the leader of the Ukrainian Choice - People's Right association Viktor Medvedchuk appealed to Putin with a request to support the exchange of prisoners between Ukraine and DPR/LPR. According to Medvedchuk, 306 prisoners held by Ukraine would be exchanged for 74 Ukrainians held by DPR/LPR.