Ukrainian intelligence discloses existence of secret communication channel with Russia for prisoner swaps – WSJ

Ukrainian soldiers return home from Russian captivity. Photo: Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War

Ukraine and Russia have been negotiating prisoner exchanges through a secret communication channel between their military intelligence agencies, established at the start of the full-scale war.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Details: The publication revealed that the largest wave of prisoner exchanges in Europe since the Second World War became possible by establishing a secret communication channel between Ukrainian and Russian military intelligence.

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It all began by chance: in March 2022, Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) Brigadier General Dmytro Usov found a phone in the pocket of a dead Russian officer near Kyiv. Using it, he made contact with the Russian command and proposed the first “exchange” of bodies of the dead. This arrangement evolved into regular negotiations and a large-scale system of prisoner-of-war exchanges.

In the first months of the war, there was no trust between the sides. DIU had no direct contact with Russian intelligence so reaching any agreement was extremely difficult. The situation changed after Russian General Alexander Zorin, who was born in Ukraine and had previously represented Russia in talks in Syria, made contact. He became a regular interlocutor of Ukrainian General Usov.

Over time, these negotiations led to the creation of a dedicated infrastructure: in Kyiv, a Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War was established, where analysts gather data on the locations of detained Ukrainians, and families of prisoners can obtain information about their relatives.

According to the publication, the existence of an effective “shadow channel” seems paradoxical, as Ukraine and Russia remain enemies and cannot agree on either a ceasefire or the future of occupied territories. At the same time, prisoner exchanges take place regularly, allowing people to return home even amid unsuccessful peace talks.

Military historians are puzzled by the well-organised logistics and exchanges conducted during an ongoing war, something almost unheard of in modern conflicts. For comparison, the Soviet Union held German prisoners of war for many years after the Second World War. Some of them were not released until 1956. The US and North Vietnam only began prisoner exchanges in 1973. Until then, America had been increasingly dragged into the Vietnam War for…