The Washington Post explores channels of communication between Ukraine and Russia

Ukraine and Russia continue to maintain communication channels during the Russian military aggression to resolve key humanitarian issues related to the exchange of prisoners of war, the bodies of the dead, the grain corridor and the return of Ukrainian children from Russia.

Source: The Washington Post

Details: Sometimes, the Vatican, Türkiye, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and the International Committee of the Red Cross are used as middlemen by Moscow and Kyiv.

However, according to some Ukrainian officials involved in the discussions, the majority of the bartering that takes place during a war is done directly, by individual representatives, including during difficult and unpleasant face-to-face meetings on the Ukrainian-Russian border and in Istanbul, as well as over the phone.

It is reported that neither side seeks to advertise the existence of these channels.

Dmytro Usov, a military intelligence official from Ukraine who oversees a coordination centre for prisoner exchange negotiations, described the process as "very, very emotionally difficult".

"They are the enemy, but if we talk about the negotiation process, this conflict of interest has to be overcome," Usov stated. "We understand that whatever has happened, whatever the relationship we have now, we as Ukrainians are interested in our defenders being brought back, and if we reject every communication channel, we won’t be able to do that."

On the Russian side, it is the Russian Defense Ministry, which also houses the FSB, Russia's secret agency, that oversees a coordination centre that handles negotiations regarding prisoner exchanges.

According to Usov, the release of specific prisoners have also been lobbied for by individual Russian politicians as well as fighting formations, like the Wagner mercenary group and Akhmat, which is run by Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Chechnya.

The Geneva Conventions stipulate that prisoners of war must be exchanged when hostilities cease. But according to Usov, Ukraine is keen to bring back its soldiers who have been taken prisoner as soon as possible.

Neither side has disclosed how many soldiers were captured.

The majority of the POW exchanges, as well as exchanges of dead soldiers' bodies, occur in the northeastern Ukrainian region of Sumy, the only part of the Ukraine-Russia border where Russian forces are not actively attempting to advance. Even so, there is daily shelling and each exchange is usually accompanied by a cease-fire.

According to Oleh Kotenko, a Ukrainian official who oversaw transfers and the search for missing soldiers until September, refrigerated vans full of bodies are driven to the border about twice a month by Russian and Ukrainian emergency service personnel who then unload and reload the dead.

Members of the Russian and Ukrainian security services watch as specialists from the International Committee of the Red Cross examine the paperwork. The ICRC started the communication line in the summer of 2022, Kotenko added. "The time, place and number of bodies is agreed with the Russian side."

The Washington Post also notes of Türkiye’s role as a mediator in the negotiations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. It is indicated that the current Minister of Defence of Ukraine Rustem Umerov also participated in negotiations, in particular, on the release of Crimean Tatar prisoners.

According to Usov, negotiations "can’t be done in such a way that one side has gotten more or less. Each side has to be able to prove they’ve won in some way."

The Vatican is another mediator in the negotiations. Ukraine lobbies through the Catholic Church for all non-combatants to be returned.

Kyrylo Budanov, Head of Ukraine's military intelligence, received an invitation to meet Pope Francis last summer, which was unusual for the Vatican, which typically only works with religious organisations.

According to Usov, the Vatican is still "in process" with its work on noncombatants.

Also this month, Qatar helped secure the bringing back of four Ukrainian children from Russia. One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Qatar had intervened because of the complexity of the case.

Typically, Russia only releases children to guardians or their legal representatives. This means that parents or other relatives must travel to Russia, which can be difficult given the ongoing conflict there.

Human rights commissioners of Ukraine and Russia, Dmytro Lubinets and Tatiana Moskalova, maintain a line of communication regarding missing children, but Lubinets stated that thus far, no results have been obtained.

However, since March, groups of kids have been brought back to Ukraine on a semi-regular basis. They are dropped off at a remote western point of the border between Ukraine and Belarus, cross it on foot, and are greeted in Ukraine by the Save Ukraine NGO.

Although Lubinets would not go into detail, he claimed that things were getting easier once Putin's arrest warrant was issued. The children were brought back via Belarus. Lubinets stated, "It is not yet time to say in detail how this happens."

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