Donbass expresses goodwill to Kiev

Accordingly, the self-proclaimed heads of the two countries announced that Donetsk and Lugansk have agreed to release four Ukrainian prisoners, three of whom are soldiers.

The representative of the Donetsk authorities said that he hoped this move would stimulate the exchange of prisoners and on a larger scale the return of all of them.

Representatives of the two self-proclaimed republics in Donbass spoke about a new signal to the Kiev government.

The release of the prisoners in the latest developments is said to have been negotiated by Viktor Medvedchuk, a prominent Ukrainian politician with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2017, Medvedchuk urged Putin about his intentions to get the separatist leaders to agree to a prisoner exchange, The Moscow Times commented.

The latest developments from the East are considered valuable news for Ukraine at this time. The prisoner exchange is one of the contents of the Minsk peace agreement - an internationally legal instrument to resolve the conflict in Donbass.

This move was initiated by the leaders of the self-proclaimed nations in Donbass, further demonstrating the goodwill and real actions of the separatist leaders towards resolving the conflict in the East. This is also considered an opportunity for Donbass to test the political moves of the new President of Ukraine.

The reaction of the two Donbass leaders came after a positive move by Russian President Vladimir Putin to gradually lift sanctions against Ukraine. The Russian president has allowed Ukrainian goods on the sanctions list to transit through Russia for delivery to a third country.

This very goodwill reaction is supported by both Russia and the two self-proclaimed countries waiting for truly positive steps from the new President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.