Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners today.

[NS1]

Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners today.
Ukraine returned 124
Russia returned 76

Will this make any difference?

One female Prisoner from Ukraine is talking
and if what she says is true its not good.
Be interesting to see what if anything happens here.

[AvHdB]

Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners today.
Ukraine returned 124
Russia returned 76

Will this make any difference?

One female Prisoner from Ukraine is talking
and if what she says is true its not good.
Be interesting to see what if anything happens here.

What is interesting is that +/- 20 prisoners held by Ukrainian refused to be returned to Donetsk/Russia. They gave no reasons why.

The majority of those returned to Kivy were in fact civilian.

[Markje]

Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners today.
Ukraine returned 124
Russia returned 76

Will this make any difference?

One female Prisoner from Ukraine is talking
and if what she says is true its not good.
Be interesting to see what if anything happens here.

What is interesting is that +/- 20 prisoners held by Ukrainian refused to be returned to Donetsk/Russia. They gave no reasons why.

The majority of those returned to Kivy were in fact civilian.

The very-short version:
- Kiev claimed the prisoners did not consent to be returned to donbass.
- Donbass claimed the area is not a prison and they could return to ukraine out of their own free will once released by the exchange.
- donbass also claimed it was important to follow procedure as agreed upon and took it as an act of bad faith kiev did not exchange those prisoners.

[AvHdB]

Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners today.
Ukraine returned 124
Russia returned 76

Will this make any difference?

One female Prisoner from Ukraine is talking
and if what she says is true its not good.
Be interesting to see what if anything happens here.

What is interesting is that +/- 20 prisoners held by Ukrainian refused to be returned to Donetsk/Russia. They gave no reasons why.

The majority of those returned to Kivy were in fact civilian.

The very-short version:
- Kiev claimed the prisoners did not consent to be returned to donbass.
- Donbass claimed the area is not a prison and they could return to ukraine out of their own free will once released by the exchange.
- donbass also claimed it was important to follow procedure as agreed upon and took it as an act of bad faith kiev did not exchange those prisoners.

Another item that has emerged is four or depending on whom you read five of the prisoners sent East were wanted for crimes or questioning regarding sniper shooting during the Maidan revolution. It seems V. Zelensky felt that sending this group East would help the peace process. While criticized in the Rada this seems a pragmatic move to help end this quagmire and move Ukraine forward.

[Markje]

Another item that has emerged is four or depending on whom you read five of the prisoners sent East were wanted for crimes or questioning regarding sniper shooting during the Maidan revolution. It seems V. Zelensky felt that sending this group East would help the peace process. While criticized in the Rada this seems a pragmatic move to help end this quagmire and move Ukraine forward.

Many of the ukrainians I am in contact with said that they voted for Zelensky because he promised to finally end the war with donbass. Not with soldiers, but by trying to grant the demands Donbass made when they first broke away (forbidding RU-language etc.).

Seems he will have an impossible task there, because this war hits the Treasury real good and it will take money to implement some things (road improvements, pensions higher etc.).

[msmoby]

Markje

For how many hours was it going to be UA policy to 'ban' Russian?

Let's stick to FACTS ..

[Markje]

Markje

For how many hours was it going to be UA policy to 'ban' Russian?

Let's stick to FACTS ..

More like years under poroshenko.

But I'm sure you know some ukrainian lawyer who happens to be your friends uncle and will testify otherwise, despite it being in the news multiple times.

Editted to add: 2012-2018 so it was before Poroshenko's election. However it wasnt enforced by Yanu.

Lets quote wikipedia a bit, even though I dislike wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_policy_in_Ukraine

However the move to repeal the 2012 law "On the principles of the state language policy" provoked negative reactions in Crimea and in some regions of Southern and Eastern Ukraine. It became one of the topics of the protests against the new government approved by the parliament after the flight of Viktor Yanukovich.[51] In this context, the next major development was the Crimean crisis.

Passage of the repeal bill was met with regret by the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe.[52] The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities expressed concern over possible further unrest. He also proposed to give advice and facilitate discussions on new legislation, declaring that "we must avoid the mistakes made last time [in 2012] when unbalanced legislation was adopted without a proper dialogue in the Verkhovna Rada."[53] The bill was also criticized by the Ambassador for Human Rights of the Russian foreign ministry.[54] Bulgarian and Romanian foreign ministers evaluated it as a step in the wrong direction,[55] and the Greek foreign minister expressed disappointment.[56] The Hungarian foreign ministry expressed serious concerns, noting that the decision "could question the commitment of the new Ukrainian administration towards democracy".[57] The Polish foreign minister called it a mistake.[58]

But of course , moby you know better than all those people who knew this law to be in effect from 2012 - 2018. In 2019 a new law was signed stating Ukrainian the official government language but Russian is allowed on the streets.

[msmoby]

I DO know better ...

The EU were on the phone on hearing the proposed 'law'  hours after the GRU had aided Yanu' in his fleeing justice and made it clear there'd be no supporting such a 'law' ...

It was NEVER enforced and ANYONE watching UA TV will see folks speaking Russian / Ukrainian in debates ..

It's being used has upset folks in W.Ukraine for years ... 

You're FAR more likely to hear a RU speaker in E.Ukraine / Russia 'mocking' Ukrainian speaking - claiming it is a 'village language' ..