The Russian side in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) is blocking the negotiation process on the exchange of detainees, demanding a procedural cleansing of nine people, who were released by Ukraine during the recent exchange, representative of certain districts of Donetsk region in TCG from Ukraine Serhiy Harmash said.

"They still block the exchange, demanding the procedural cleansing of nine people, whom we gave them during the recent exchange. We cannot legally 'cleanse' them without their will or presence, and their intentions and locations are unknown not only to us, but also their lawyers [...]. The other side knows this, but uses it as an excuse to block the exchange," Harmash wrote on Facebook, following the meeting on Wednesday, December 16.

"However, the most cynical thing is the very fact that the procedural cleansing of people who are already free and who do not really need this cleansing in Ukraine is put on one side of the scale (they fought against Ukraine, so they hate it), and on the other – freedom, the life and health of those who have been sitting in basements for years, and for them it is not just 'procedural cleaning' that is relevant to them, but at least just the opportunity to wash," he said.

Harmash said that Russia also continues to violate the agreement reached at the Normandy format summit in Paris in 2019 on the admission of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to places of detention of people.

"Having given the opportunity to visit four people in four months, ORDLO blocked the work of the ICRC on prisoners. Due to supposedly 'quarantine' restrictions, neither relatives nor anyone else can visit them. But on our territory, their people, are visited in places of detention and by the ICRC and even by relatives. This is an indicator of the attitude towards people in general," he said.

As for unblocking the operation of the entry-exit checkpoint on the contact line, Ukraine has fulfilled all the requirements, including carrying out an examination of the bridge in Schastia to make sure that traffic is safe on it.

"We are ready to open this entry-exit checkpoint for private vehicles. Let me remind you that today there is not a single entry-exit checkpoint with a car pass in Luhansk region," Harmash said.

Ukraine also committed itself to equipping a place for buses to turn around in the grey area near the Zolote entry-exit checkpoint within five days.

"In five days, the Russian representatives of ORLO will have no reason not to open the entry-exit checkpoint," Harmash said.