No statements may affect the militants while they are staying in Donbas, so they should be knocked out from there. No one can influence the army, which has occupied someone else's land, and the implementation of Minsk-2 is not possible for the reason of the conflict itself - just spinning out time, and everyone is fine with it. This was said by the military expert, chairman of Donetsk regional party organization "Ukrainian Association of Patriots - UKROP" Roman Svitan in the program "War Diary" on 112 Ukraine TV-channel, commenting on the statement of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who asked Putin to "influence the militants."
The military expert also believes that the brink of compromise on the release of hostages has been passed. “Out of 139 hostages, whom Ukraine requests to exchange, only 30 have remained alive. During the year, we lost more than 100 hostages. They died because of delays in the release. These are people who have been taken captive twice: first as hostages of the terrorists, and then of big politics,” Roman Svitan said answering a question concerning the statement of the President’s commissioner for peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas Iryna Gerashchenko.
As previously reported, Iryna Gerashchenko wrote on her Facebook page that the exchange of 139 Ukrainians, who remained imprisoned by militants at that time, had not been settled yet. According to the commissioner, their release was blocked, but the Ukrainian side is ready for the compromise, which should be found in the list of 25 Ukrainians (civil and military), who had been tortured in the militants’ captivity and who had obtained health problems and severe diagnoses.”
Roman Svitana is confident that the attempt to resolve the issue of releasing the Ukrainian guys by means of the Minsk Agreements will not succeed. “They can be rescued only by the negotiators, who have been involved in this issue since the beginning of the war in Donbas. It is these people - negotiator Volodymyr Ruban and Hennadiy Korban – that rescued me from captivity, when a year and a half ago Boroday ordered to shoot me. Negotiators are effective because they are not tied to ‘big people’,” UKROP member believes.
According to military experts, everyone knows the story of prisoner Nadiya Savchenko, whose release has not yet been settled at the level of the Minsk negotiations. “Therefore, there should be no compromise in the issue of exchange of prisoners. There will be an avalanche of requirements and playing for time. And our guys will die, and then there will be nobody to talk about,” Svitan said on TV air.
