Big PoW exchange: Negotiations complicated by rivalry between Russia's defence and security agencies

ALONA MAZURENKO, "UKRAINSKA PRAVDA" – MONDAY, 3 OCTOBER 2022, 06:24

Negotiations between Ukraine and Russia regarding the prisoners of war exchange have been complicated by mutual hostility between Russia’s Ministry of Defence and its Federal Security Service [commonly known as the FSB from its abbreviation in Russian - ed.].

Source: Ukrainska Pravda’s reporting for an article on Ukraine and Russia’s recent prisoner swap

Quote from Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine in charge of prisoner exchanges: "There is a degree of rivalry and tension between Russia’s [security and defence] agencies. The fewer of them [involved in negotiations], the easier it was.

The FSB had already launched an investigation regarding Ukraine’s military commanders, so this aspect of the negotiations was the hardest."

Details: Budanov noted that the negotiations could have lasted even longer if soldiers from the Azov Regiment had been put on trial in Russia. Under those circumstances, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation would have become another party to the negotiations.

Ukrainian commanders, such as Denys Prokopenko, Serhii Volynskyi, Sviatoslav Palomar, Denys Shleha and Oleh Khomenko, were all held in different detention centres in Moscow. In contrast to other prisoners of war, it was the FSB that was in charge of them, and not the intelligence officers from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Defence.

Overall, negotiations with Russia split into two separate tracks.

The first track concerned the exchange of Viktor Medvedchuk. At first, these negotiations were held between officials from Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate and their counterparts from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation. During the later stages, Aleksandr Bortnikov, Director of the FSB, personally handled Medvedchuk’s case.

The second track concerned the liberation of the Azov Regiment commanders; these negotiations took place exclusively between the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine and the FSB.

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