Russia and Ukraine are in secret contact both directly and through intermediaries. The Washington Post (WP) newspaper learned about this.
The media, citing Ukrainian officials participating in the negotiations, writes that Kiev and Moscow are agreeing through secret channels “on a number of humanitarian issues, including the exchange of prisoners and passage of ships, the return of Ukrainian children from Russia.” The exchange of prisoners and bodies most often takes place in the northeast of the Sumy region of Ukraine, the newspaper adds.
Contacts are made through telephone calls or personal meetings at the Ukrainian-Russian border and in Istanbul. In addition, Moscow and Kyiv use intermediaries, including Turkey, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the Vatican and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the publication writes.
At the same time, on the Russian side, the coordination center under the Russian Ministry of Defense, the FSB, individual Russian politicians, as well as representatives of the battalions are participating in the negotiation process, said the head of the coordination center on the issue of prisoner exchange at the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service, Dmitry Usov, as quoted by the newspaper.
According to media reports, neither side seeks to advertise the existence of hidden channels for negotiations.
Source: Rosbalt
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