Five members of the former Berkut riot police of Ukraine's Interior Ministry who are charged with mass killings on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in the center of Kyiv on February 20, 2014, are currently at the Mayorske checkpoint, Donetsk region, waiting for participation in a major prisoner swap in Donbas, the hromadske online publication reported, citing their lawyer Ihor Varfolomeyev.

"They are in a bus right now, waiting for the exchange," the lawyer said on Sunday at around noon.

These are Oleh Yanishevsky, Serhiy Zinchenko and Pavlo Abroskin, who were in custody in Ukraine, as well as Serhiy Tamtur and Oleksandr Marynchenko, who remained under 24/7 house arrest. On December 28, Kyiv's Court of Appeals released all five on personal recognizance terms.

On February 16, 2016, their criminal proceedings were combined into one case. They are accused of killing 48 participants in protests in Kyiv during the Revolution of Dignity.

The prisoner exchange between Ukraine's authorities and the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" ("DPR") and "Luhansk People's Republic" ("LPR") at the Mayorske checkpoint started at about 11:00 Kyiv time on December 29.