REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KIEV -- Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, who is mediating the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine, said Monday that the conflicting sides have suspended the swap of their prisoners of war.

"Prisoner swaps actually have been halted," Kuchma, a representative of the contact group on normalizing the situation in Ukraine's eastern regions, told reporters.

Kuchma explained that the pro-independence rebels have set legal guarantee for granted amnesty for their fighters as a precondition for a new round of prisoner exchange, while Kiev is very hesitant.

"In fact, there is not a single governmental team to deal with this issue," Kuchma said.