DONETSK, May 23 (RAPSI) - The “People’s Mayor” of Slavyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, has suggested exchanging LifeNews journalists, held captive by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, for prisoners seized by the Donetsk volunteers.

“We are holding members of the National Guard, officers and soldiers of the [Ukrainian] Army and Right Sector supporters. We have something to offer in exchange. Let’s think how we can do this,” Ponomaryov told RIA Novosti.

He declined to name the exact number of prisoners, held by the Donetsk volunteers. Earlier, volunteer members exchanged Donbass “People’s Governor” Pavel Gubarev for officers of the Alpha special weapons and tactics unit who were taken by them.

In mid-May, the Ukrainian National Guard arrested LifeNews journalists Oleg Sidyakin and Marat Saichenko near Karamatorsk, in the northern part of the Donetsk Region, where fighting rages between Ukrainian law enforcement agencies and members of a local resistance group. Both men were charged with supporting “terrorism” in eastern Ukraine. Moscow urged Kiev, along the OSCE and others, to promptly release the reporters, but this demand has not yet been fulfilled.