Berlin, Paris consider detainee exchange an important step towards implementation of ‘Minsk’

Western partners in the "Normandy format" called the exchange of detainees in Donbas an important step towards the implementation of the Minsk agreements.
This is said in a joint statement by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, published on the website of the German Federal Foreign Office.

“Today’s exchange of detainees in eastern Ukraine is an important step towards the implementation of the Minsk agreements and decisions taken at the Normandy summit in Paris on December 9, 2019,” reads the statement of April 16.

Germany and France welcomed the efforts of the Trilateral Contact Group led by the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine and in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG), Ambassador Heidi Grau, who made a significant contribution to this exchange.

The parties continue to insist on the full implementation of the agreements reached during the December summit, namely the compliance with an agreed ceasefire, mine clearance, the creation of new checkpoints and new disengagement areas.

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, according to its mandate, must have unlimited and safe access throughout Ukraine, including to non-government-controlled areas, both ministers emphasized.

As reported, 20 Ukrainian citizens, who were held in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, returned to government-controlled areas as a result of a mutual release on April 16.

Instead, 14 citizens left for the occupied territories. The mutual release of detainees took place as part of the "all-for-all" format.