According to the article, in some cases Moscow and Kyiv use the services of intermediaries, including Turkey, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the Vatican and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
However, military negotiations are mostly conducted face-to-face, between individual representatives, including difficult and unpleasant meetings on the Ukrainian-Russian border and in Istanbul, as well as telephone conversations, some Ukrainian officials told the publication. Neither side is willing to publicly announce the existence of these “back channels.”
“It’s very, very emotionally difficult,” noted Dmytro Yusov, a Ukrainian military intelligence officer who heads the coordination center overseeing the prisoner swap negotiations.
“They are enemies, but if we are talking about the negotiation process, this conflict of interest must be overcome. We understand that no matter what happens, no matter what the relationship is now, we Ukrainians have an interest in the return of our defenders, and if we refuse all channels of communication, we will not be able to do that,” he added.
Intermediaries are a backup option
As Russia brutally attempts to overthrow the Ukrainian government and seize its territory, there is little room for negotiations to end the war. in 2022 in March several formal peace talks failed. Instead, Ukraine and Russia returned to core issues of mutual interest, including the exchange of prisoners of war.
On the Russian side, the negotiations on the exchange of prisoners of war are led by the Coordination Center under the Ministry of Defense of Russia, which also includes the Russian Security Service. According to D. Yusov, some Russian politicians and militant groups advocate the release of specific prisoners.
Reuters/Scanpix photo/Russia and Ukraine exchanged prisoners of war
The Geneva Conventions provide for the exchange of prisoners of war at the end of hostilities. However, according to D. Yusov, who spoke to The Washington Post, Ukraine wants to return the captured fighters as soon as possible, because, according to the United Nations, they are systematically tortured. Neither side reported how many soldiers were captured.
The exchange of prisoners, as well as the exchange of the bodies of dead soldiers, takes place mainly in the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine, the only stretch of the Ukrainian-Russian border where Russian troops are not actively trying to advance. Despite this, shelling continues daily, and ceasefires are declared at any contact.
About twice a month, rescuers from Russia and Ukraine bring coolers with bodies to the border, unload and reload them there, Oleh Kotenka, a Ukrainian official who until September was responsible for the transfer and search for missing soldiers, told reporters.
Experts from the International Committee of the Red Cross are checking the documents, while Russian and Ukrainian security officials are watching, he said.
O. Kotenka: we need to agree on something with the enemy, on humanitarian missions… Otherwise, 1,700 people would not be buried with dignity, like heroes.
“The time, place and number of bodies are being coordinated with the Russian side,” emphasized O. Kotenka.
According to the official, this contact line was initiated by the International Committee of the Red Cross in 2022. in the summer
“We need to agree on something with the enemy, regarding humanitarian missions,” noted O. Kotenka and added that otherwise, “1,700 people would not be buried with dignity, like heroes.”
Turkey has become the main venue for the two sides to negotiate when they find themselves in a deadlock. It was chosen as a neutral territory after the 2022 in March a short round of peace talks in Belarus was simply derailed when several members of the Ukrainian delegation fell mysteriously ill.
AFP/Scanpix/Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has successfully forged ties with Moscow and Kyiv, denouncing Russia’s invasion and rejecting Western sanctions, and acting as a conduit for Russia’s financial sector. Several public meetings between Ukrainian and Russian officials have taken place in Istanbul, but information about them is often not disclosed, and the total number is unknown.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov was one of the officials who conducted the talks in Istanbul. An ethnic Crimean Tatar who speaks fluent Turkish, Umerov made contacts in Turkey when he negotiated the release of Crimean Tatar prisoners after the 2014 coup. Russian invasions of the peninsula.
Saudi Arabia and Turkey facilitated the deal. According to D. Yusov, their participation reduced the probability that Russia will refuse the deal, because it does not want to anger two important partners of Moscow.
After several months of negotiations, in 2022 in July an agreement on the supply of grain was announced.
The Washington Post noted that there were no one-on-one meetings between Ukrainians and Russians on grain, according to Yuriy Vaskov, Ukraine’s deputy infrastructure minister who attended the talks. Instead, the talks took place in a quadrilateral format: Turkey, the United Nations, Ukraine and Russia, represented by representatives of the Ministry of Defense.
According to D. Jusov, after discussions on the sidelines of the grain negotiations, it was agreed on the largest exchange of prisoners to date: in 2022. in September 215 Ukrainians and 10 foreign fighters were exchanged for 55 Russian officers and pro-Russian Ukrainian politician and Putin ally Viktor Medvedchuk.
Photo of the Security Service of Ukraine/Exchange of prisoners of war
Saudi Arabia and Turkey facilitated the deal. According to D. Yusov, their participation reduced the probability that Russia will refuse the deal, because it does not want to anger two important partners of Moscow.
The last known exchange of prisoners of war, with 45 people on each side, took place in July.
“Negotiations cannot take place in such a way that one side gets more or less,” D. Jusova emphasized. “Each side must be able to prove that they won something.”
Another intermediary is the Holy See – the Vatican. Ukraine, through the Catholic Church, is seeking the return of all non-combatants, including cooks, doctors and other people. According to the Geneva Conventions, non-combatants should not be taken prisoner.
In a rare move for the Vatican, which prefers to interact with religious institutions, last summer Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s defense intelligence, was invited to meet with Pope Francis. According to D. Yusov, the Vatican’s work on the return of non-combatants is still “in progress”.
AFP/Scanpix/Pope Francis
Ukraine sends messages and lists of names to the papal nuncio in Kyiv, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulboks, who sends them through the Holy See to the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow, a Ukrainian official said. Meanwhile, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, delivers the message to the Kremlin.
This month, Qatar helped secure the return of four Ukrainian children from Russia, becoming the third country after Turkey and Saudi Arabia to broker a successful deal between Russia and Ukraine, The Washington Post noted.
One of the officials involved in the deal said Qatar intervened because of the complexity of the situation.
In March, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Russian Children’s Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova, charging them with war crimes related to the forced transfer of Ukrainian children. Russia categorically denies these allegations.
As a rule, Russia only gives children to their guardians or legal representatives, which means that the parents or other relatives have to come to Russia, which may not be possible during the war.
Reuters/Scanpix/Children in Russian-occupied territories
Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets and his Russian colleague Tatiana Moskalkova have been communicating on the issue of missing children, but according to D. Lubinets, this has not yielded any results. They met twice in person – in 2022. in October on the Ukrainian-Russian border and in January.
However, since March groups of children keep returning to Ukraine. They are disembarked at the far western section of the border between Ukraine and Belarus, cross it on foot, and are met in Ukraine by the non-governmental organization “Save Ukraine”.
D.Lubinecs refused to indicate how the children who came through Belarus are returned, but he noted that it became easier after the arrest warrant of V.Putin was issued.
“Now is not the time to tell in detail how this is happening,” the ombudsman summed up.
After the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, official Kiev made great efforts to convince the Russian side to stop its unprovoked aggression against Ukrainians and withdraw its troops. Contacts between the parties were unsuccessful, as Moscow categorically refused to return to the 1991 agreement. walls.
ZUMAPRESS / Scanpix photo/Dmytro Lubinecas
Earlier, RAND Corporation analysts Raphael S. Cohen and Gian Gentile stated that there is no basis for a compromise with Russia and a peace agreement that includes concessions to the aggressor.
For his part, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba noted that the topic of negotiations with Moscow does not exist in official and unofficial rhetoric, it is not even mentioned.
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