REUTERS
Self-proclaimed leader of the militants from the “Luhansk People’s Republic” terrorist organization Igor Plotnitsky said that the Ukrainian captives would not be released as announced earlier, TSN news service reported citing one of the pro-militant propaganda websites.
Plotnitsky blamed the Ukrainian side for the failed release: "All attempts to contact the authorized representatives of Ukraine to hand them over the prisoners of war were to no avail."
At the same time, the Presidential Envoy for the resolution of the situation in Donbas, Iryna Gerashchenko, wrote on Facebook that "such statements on Christmas Eve, if they were not going to be followed, but were only voiced to once again make fun of the real people – they are not just a farce and hypocrisy. It’s a great sin. And it’s the torture of the families of the hostages."
Read also"LPR" pledges to release all captives for Christmas"This is a real face of the militants... How cruel can on be to humiliate the families of hostages like that... If you only knew, how many of them - mothers and wives in grief – called me and wrote to me in hope that the other side has at least the remnants of conscience left. But no, even on Christmas Eve, they are not afraid to break all possible moral standards," she wrote.