During Prisoner Exchange One Asks To Stay With Ukrainian Capturers
RFE/RL’s Current Time correspondent Timur Olevsky is in eastern Ukraine and observed a prisoner exchange late last night. He reports that 12 Ukrainian fighters are to be released from separatists’ captivity today in exchange for the 12 separatists who were returned to the so called DPR yesterday evening. At first, they were going to exchange 14 people, but Ukraine’s Security Service decided to keep two, accusing them of committing grave crimes. Separatists reduced their list to 12 people as well.
“An exchange like this already fell through once due to the actions of the inept [Ukrainian] negotiator,” reports Olevsky. "He was inexperienced and didn’t even know that some people on his list were already dead.”
Vasyl Budik, advisor to the Ukrainian deputy minister of defense, is now in charge of exchanges.
The procedure is taking place on neutral territory, at a checkpoint close to Maryinka. Here is Olevsky’s account of how the return of captive separatists took place:
“Budik called somebody on the other side, asking for a 'green corridor.' At the time of the exchange, shelling continued. The self-proclaimed “DPR” militia fired artillery and the Ukrainian military fired back. In the end, the separatists were returned. When boarding the car, one man asked to stay. But he was still given away, because otherwise Ukrainians would get one less person back. I can’t stop thinking about this one person, who at the last minute decided to stay.”
!!! BREAKING !!!
Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Yaresko says Kyiv has reached a debt-restructuring deal with international creditors, under which part of the $18 billion debt will be written off and the rest will be extended until 2019. MORE TO FOLLOW...
Yesterday a captive of Ukraine asked not to be returned to the so-called DPR. So this morning the "DPR" appears to have replied in turn.
LifeNews, a Russian news outlet with ties to the country's security services, is now reporting that one of the Ukrainian troops currently in captivity of the so-called DPR officials asked to stay with the separatists and not be returned.
However, Current Time correspondent Timur Olevsky, who is witnessing the exchange process, reports that the man is actually not a Ukrainian fighter, but a civilian -- a local citizen who was included in the list of prisoners to be exchanged by the so called DPR itself.
As a result, separatists returned only 11 Ukrainian captors, as opposed to the promised 12.
(See previous post for Olevsky's report from last night in which a captive asked not to be returned to the DPR).
Our news desk has come up with a few more details on Ukraine's debt deal:
Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Yaresko says Kyiv has reached a debt-restructuring deal with international creditors under which part of the $18 billion debt will be written off and the rest will be extended until 2019.
Yaresko said the deal involved a 20 percent write-down on the principal and met all targets set by an International Monetary Fund bailout program.
"Everyone's done well out of this deal. That's why it's collaborative. It's not one side winning, it's a win-win situation. We're all now moving forward without putting the value of the bonds at any further risk," she said in comments made on August 26 but released a day later.
Ukraine's sovereign dollar bond prices surged after news of the deal.
In Moscow, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said Russia would not participate in the agreement.
Ukraine owes Russia a $3 billion eurobond due for full repayment in December
(Reuters, TASS)