DONETSK (Sputnik) — Kiev authorities on Wednesday released 12 prisoners-of-war as part of a prisoner exchange with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine, the DPR military said.
"We took ours today, tomorrow we will release their [Ukrainian] prisoners," a spokesman for the DPR Defense Ministry was quoted by the Donetsk news agency as saying.
The conflicting sides in Ukraine have earlier agreed to carry out '12 for 12' prisoner exchange on Wednesday night, but it was briefly interrupted by sporadic gunfire in the vicinity of the transfer point.
In February, the warring sides signed a peace deal in Minsk. Prisoner swaps, as well as an all-out ceasefire, a heavy arms withdrawal and decentralization, were key provisions in the Minsk agreement aimed at bringing peace to Ukraine.
Last month, Kiev and Lugansk militias exchanged ten militiamen for an equal number of Ukrainian troops.