LPR demands Kiev return JCCC monitor without any conditions - Kobtseva

The Lugansk People’s Republic has demanded unconditional return of observer of the LPR Office at the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination Andrey Kosyak, who was captured by Kiev forces, LPR representative in the Contact Group subgroup on humanitarian issues, head of the LPR working group on prisoner exchange Olga Kobtseva told a press briefing at the Lugansk Media Centre.

 “We insist and reiterate our demand we articulated at the Contact Group session: return our monitor to the LPR without setting forth any conditions such as bail or including him in the prisoner exchange list,” Kobtseva said. 

FREEDOM FOR RANSOM

Tatyana Varaksina, the wife of the abducted officer said that in the evening of October 13, several hours after the incident, she talked with her spouse over the phone.

He said he was being interrogated and that he could not talk freely as he was on speakerphone, Tatyana said.

Kosyak told Tatyana that he was in Severodonetsk and that he could be released in a prisoner exchange or on a 40,000 to 180,000-hryvna bail (some 109,000 to 491,000 Russian rubles).

The man who introduced himself as Kosyak’s lawyer, told her that her husband had been taken to a hospital for medical examination which had to confirm the lack of any signs of beating.

According to Tatyana, the lawyer kept assuring her that there was not the slightest sign suggesting physical abuse. However, she said that they (the signs of beating) were perfectly seen on the photo of her husband.

The woman said that her husband had never been convicted for murder and that all the charges brought against him by Ukraine were falsified. 

CAPTURE IN SECURITY ZONE

A Ukrainian army special operations group captured representative of the LPR Office at the JCCC Andrey Kosyak in the Zolotoye security zone. The Ukrainain delegation in the Contact Group said that the LPR officers at the JCCC were reconnoitering abandoned Ukrainian troops positions "under the guise of mine clearance.” The LPR demanded that Kiev immediately release the LPR representative. LPR Head Leonid Pasechnik said that further dialogue with Kiev within the Minsk format made no sense until it had returned the LPR representative in the JCCC.

The framework agreement on disengagement of forces and hardware in Donbass was signed in September 2016. The document provides for three disengagement areas around Zolotoye, Stanitsa Luganskaya and Petrovskoye (DPR territory). Despite the accord, the LPR repeatedly detected the deploying of Ukrainian troops and hardware in the Zolotoye and Petrovskoye areas.

The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. Conflict settlement relies on the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, signed on February 12, 2015 in the Belarussian capital by the Contact Group members and coordinated by the Normandy Four heads of states (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine). The document provides for ceasefire and withdrawal of heavy weapons from the contact line. *i*s