Ukraine

Kiev, Sep 7 (AFP) A long-awaited swap of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine was underway on Saturday, sources and state media said, with 70 people involved in the landmark exchange.

A Ukrainian government source told AFP the swap was proceeding and that 35 people on each side would be exchanged.

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said an exchange of prisoners with Russia on Saturday was the first step in a process to end the conflict in Ukraine’s Donbass region.

He said the swap had been agreed with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, and that he hoped for a meeting in the so-called “Normandy Format” with Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany soon to help defuse the war with pro-Russian separatists.

He said all steps had to be taken “to finish this horrible war,” referring to the conflict with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

KIEV (Reuters) - A Ukrainian court on Thursday released on bail a man suspected of involvement in the downing of a Malaysia Airlines flight over eastern Ukraine in 2014 that killed 298 people.

A judge said that Volodymyr Tsemakh, whom Ukraine’s security service has identified as a former commander of Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, should be released from custody immediately, pending further investigations.

Tsemakh is one of the people who could be handed over to Russia in a widely anticipated prisoner exchange.

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian lawmakers voted to strip themselves of immunity from prosecution on Tuesday, moving to help push through a signature election promise by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to root out corruption in politics.

Previously, lawmakers could only be stripped of immunity by a parliamentary vote on each individual case. Critics have said removing lawmakers’ protection leaves them vulnerable to targeted prosecutions by those in power.

KIEV, September 2. /TASS/: There is no progress on the prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine so far, attorney of several detained Russians in Ukraine Valentin Rybin informed TASS.

"All detained persons in Ukraine remain where they are. There has been no movement," he said.

According to the attorney, the decree of the Ukrainian president on pardoning the detained under the exchange deal has not been signed yet. Rybin was also unable to confirm the earlier media reports claiming that the exchange would take place on September 3.

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy ordered his new government to submit a draft law for land market reform by the start of October and to prepare large-scale privatizations of state companies starting in April next year.

Zelenskiy has pledged to lift a longstanding ban on the sale of farmland, a move that supporters say will unlock enormous opportunities for investment in the agriculture sector of one of the world’s largest grain exporters.

DONETSK, September 1. /TASS/: Members of the OSCE monitoring mission and representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic at the Joint Ceasefire Control and Coordination Center have come under shelling carried out by the Ukrainian forces in the republic’s south, Head of the DPR’s mission to the JCCC Ruslan Yakubov said.

1 September 2019; AFP: Ukraine's president on Saturday slammed the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline set to send Russian gas to Germany as a "threat" to Europe and welcomed moves by Kiev to tap into US gas supplies.

Volodymyr Zelensky made the comments beside Poland's President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw, where he was due to attend Sunday ceremonies marking 80 years since the outbreak of World War II.

KIEV, August 31. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has submitted 19 bills to the country’s parliament, Verkhovna Rada, including amendments to ten articles of the Ukrainian constitution, according to the parliament’s official website.

KIEV, August 30. /TASS/: The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has said that the next prisoner exchange between Kiev and Moscow would not take place on Friday, and its final date was not yet determined.

"Not today," SBU Spokesperson Yelena Gitlyanskaya told Ukraine’s Obozrevatel (Observer) edition.

Commenting on reports that the exchange could take place in Kiev’s Zhuliany airport any moment, she noted: "We do not give any specific dates. I can say, however, that it will not take place today. There is no final date yet."