15:03 03.12.2020

Arestovych says exchange of detainees possible before year end

2 min read

KYIV. Dec 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – A scenario is possible in which Russia at the last moment before the anniversary of the Normandy format leaders' summit on December 9 will agree to an exchange of prisoners, non-staff advisor to the head of the President's Office for strategic communications in the field of national security and defense Oleksiy Arestovych said.

"He [Putin] keeps uncertainty until the last minute, then stuns us all with some messages. I still do not exclude a scenario in which two minutes before, at 23.58 on December 9, a year after the agreements [the leaders of the Normandy Four in Paris] he says: release the prisoners, open the checkpoint," Arestovych told reporters after a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency in Kyiv on Thursday.

In addition, he said that Ukraine provided the lists of detainees on July 18, while the Russian Federation has not provided its lists until now and is not officially considering Ukrainian ones.

"The Minister of Defense held a meeting with NATO ambassadors and military attachés, confirmed that Ukraine can get the NATO Membership Action Plan in 2021 already, this is all thanks to the fact that Ukraine is implementing a successful diplomatic plan, which was signed in Paris. And we can say that this is a trap, into which we have caught Russia. I call this compulsion to concretization," Arestovych said.

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