More on today's prisoner swap from RFE/RL's News Desk:
It included the handover to the government side of two RFE/RL contributors who had been held by separatists since 2017: Stanislav Aseyev and Oleh Halaziuk.
A number of rights and press groups had urged the release of Aseyev and Halaziuk over the past two years.
Aseyev was sentenced by separatists in October to 15 years in captivity for alleged espionage in a process that rights and press-freedom groups called "illegal" and "shocking."
Halaziuk was a professor at a Kharkiv economic institute before he started blogging under the pseudonym Myroslav Tyamushchiy to chronicle life in a war zone after the outbreak of the conflict in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
"We are thrilled and relieved that Stas and Oleh have been released,” said RFE/RL President Jamie Fly, who had urged Zelenskiy to seek the men's release during a meeting in Kyiv last month.
“They were held incommunicado for 2 1/2 years, not because of any crime they committed, but because they reported the truth about Russia’s occupation of their homeland."
Fly went on to thank the Ukrainian government and the so-called Trilateral Contact Group for their work toward winning the journalists' freedom.
Ukraine, Russia-Backed Separatists Complete Prisoner Swap
The latest from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service:
Ukrainian authorities and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine have completed what was billed as an "all-for-all" prisoner swap near the village of Horlivka on December 29, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office said.
But it wasn't immediately clear how many prisoners -- which included fighters from the separatist ranks and civilians and servicemen long held in the breakaway regions -- were transferred in all.
"Mutual release of detained persons has ended, " the presidential office said in a tweet, adding, "76 of ours are safe in Ukraine-controlled territory. Details later."
Serhiy Sivoha, an adviser to the Ukrainian Security and Defense Council with ties to Zelenskiy's office, told Ukraine's Hromadske TV that Ukraine had gotten 76 of its nationals back and handed over 127 detainees within the framework of the exchange.
Earlier, the UNIAN news agency had quoted a representative of the Donetsk separatists as saying that the Ukrainian side was expected to hand over 87 people, while the separatists were set to swap 55.
The swap was the second major prisoner exchange involving Ukrainians caught up in the conflict in four months.
An RFE/RL contributor, Stanislav Aseyev, who had been held by separatists since 2017, was among the prisoners handed over to the Ukrainian government.
Aseyev had been sentenced by separatists to 15 years in captivity for alleged espionage in a process that rights and press-freedom groups called "illegal" and "shocking."
There was no immediate word on whether another RFE/RL contributor, blogger Oleh Halaziuk, who has been held by separatists in the Donetsk region since 2017, was also among those freed.
The notion of an "all-for-all" prisoner exchange gained momentum during peace talks in Paris on December 9 among the so-called Normandy Four -- Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany -- trying to bring an end to the five-year conflict.
In the last swap, Russia and Ukraine traded a total of 70 prisoners in a move that many regarded as progress in efforts to deescalate a war that has killed more than 13,000 people since Moscow forcibly annexed Crimea and Russia-backed gunmen grabbed swaths of eastern Ukraine including parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014.
Russia insists it is not a party to the conflict, despite significant evidence that includes communication with separatist leaders, captured Russians, and Russian casualties in the fighting.
After the swap on December 29, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv tweeted out congratulations of "liberated captives from Russia-controlled Donbas" and specifically cited "Russia's ongoing aggression [that] confronts Ukraine's leadership with difficult choices."
In Moscow, the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had welcomed the prisoner swap as a "positive" development, AFP reported.
There was controversy ahead of the planned swap when families of protesters killed by riot police during pro-Western unrest in 2014 publicly objected to any of the police officers convicted in those killings being part of a trade.
Families of the victims of the riot policemen warned in an open letter on Facebook to Zelenskiy that the release of the men could lead to a "wave of protests."
"We would like to inform you that these people are neither participants nor victims of the conflict in eastern Ukraine," they wrote.
The conflict in the region known as the Donbas is one of the biggest challenges facing Zelenskiy, who campaigned on a vow to end the conflict. He was inaugurated on May 20.
The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Russia for its support of the separatists in eastern Ukraine and for the seizure and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.
With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa, UNIAN, and Interfax
Just in from RFE/RL's News Desk:
Ukrainian authorities and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine have completed a prisoner swap, the office of Ukraine's president said on December 29.
"Mutual release of detained persons has ended, " the presidential office said in a tweet, adding that 76 people had been released and transferred to the government.
It wasn't clear how many prisoners had been returned to the separatists.
Earlier, the Unian news agency quoted had quoted a representative of Donetsk separatists as saying that Ukrainian side was expected to hand over 87 people, while the separatists are set to swap 55.
More here.
Ukraine, Russia-Backed Separatists Hold Prisoner Swap
A prisoner swap between Ukraine's government and Russia-backed separatists in the country's east took place on December 29. People who had been held by the separatists were brought by buses to a government-controlled checkpoint near the village of Mayorske. The exchange of prisoners was agreed at a December 9 summit in Paris. The total number and the identities of the prisoners is not yet fully known.