Here's more from RFE/RL's news desk on the planned prisoner swap tomorrow:
Russia-Backed Separatists Pardon Prisoners In Step Toward Planned Swap With Ukraine
The leader of Russia-backed separatists has pardoned 74 Ukrainian prisoners as part of a major prisoner exchange that will take place between the two sides of the conflict on December 27.
Separatist leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko said on December 26 that the swap, which also involves Ukraine handing over 306 people it has captured in the conflict, is only the first stage of possible further moves to exchange prisoners with more lists being compiled.
"The exchange will take place at 1 p.m. [local time] tomorrow [December 27]," Zakharchenko told reporters in Donetsk.
"The exchange will happen without any hindrance from the DPR or LPR [separatist-controlled areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions]," he said, adding that the prisoner swap was in its "first stage."
If the exchange is carried out, it will the first one in 14 months.
Fighting between Kyiv's forces and the Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, has killed more than 10,300 people since April 2014.
At a meeting in Minsk on December 20, representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the separatists, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said that they had agreed on a holiday cease-fire starting at midnight on December 23.
The cease-fire was agreed "in connection with the forthcoming Christmas and New Year festivities" and existing agreements and obligations, said an OSCE statement.
However, on December 25, both sides in the conflict made claims accusing each other of violating the cease-fire agreement.
Several cease-fire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords -- September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed at resolving the conflict -- have failed to hold.
With reporting by Interfax, TASS, and unian.net
Here is today's map of the latest situation in the Donbas conflict zone, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE)
Hmm
Here's a Saakashvili update from our news desk:
Despite Summons, Saakashvili Refuses To Be Questioned
Mikheil Saakashvili, the leader of Ukraine's Movement of New Forces party and former president of Georgia, has reportedly refused to appear for questioning at the Main Directorate of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), despite being summoned for an appearance there on December 26.
Saakashvili's lawyer, Pavlo Bohomazov, initially said Saakashvili was planning to appear for questioning.
But shortly after the scheduled meeting at 11 a.m. local time, another Saakashvili lawyer, Ruslan Chornolutsky, told journalists that the former governor of Ukraine's Odesa region would "not enter the investigator's office for investigative procedures today."
Chornolutsky said Saakashvili received a summons to be questioned and to submit samples of his voice for analysis on December 26.
He said that those were two different investigative procedures, which cannot be conducted simultaneously.
"We have already asked for these two investigative procedures to be separated," Chornolutsky said. "We have submitted such a motion."
On the eve of the scheduled meeting, Saakashvili expressed concerns that Ukrainian authorities were trying to deny him temporary protection status and "create conditions" for his "expulsion from the country."
That hearing was scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. local time.
Read more here