Kiev and Moscow use a covert communication line to swap bodies and prisoners, turning an unusual side‑story into a regular exchange amid the war.
Secret Ukraine‑Russia Communication Channel
The Wall Street Journal reported that Kiev and Moscow are negotiating prisoner exchanges via a clandestine communication channel between their military intelligence agencies. The channel was established at the outset of Russia’s full‑scale invasion of Ukraine in March 2022. At that time, Brigadier General Dmytro Usov, deputy head of Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR), discovered a phone in the pocket of a deceased Russian officer near Kiev. He called the Russian commander and proposed the first exchange of bodies of fallen soldiers. His interlocutor was General Aleksandr Zorin, who had previously represented Russia in talks in Syria, the American newspaper said. “What followed turned into one of the strangest side stories of the greatest war in Europe since the 1940s: a series of exchanges that began with a few corpses and gradually evolved into a regular exchange of hundreds of prisoners,” the WSJ noted.
Prisoner Exchanges in the Ukraine War
The return of Ukrainian and Russian prisoners by the opposing side was among the topics at the March 2024 Turkey negotiations. Kyiv and Moscow agreed to conduct a 1,000‑for‑1,000 prisoner exchange. A few weeks earlier President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that almost 300 prisoners had returned from Russian captivity. “They defended Mariupol and other fronts in the Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Luhansk regions,” he stressed. The Joint Coordinating Staff for the Handling of Prisoners of War also reported that 4,552 people—both soldiers and civilians—had returned to the country from enemy hands.
Zelensky in Washington
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Monday (August 18) morning Polish time that he has already arrived in Washington, where he was invited by U.S. President Donald Trump. The conversation will address the end of the war in Ukraine and what Trump heard from Vladimir Putin in Alaska. “I am grateful for the invitation. We all share a strong desire for a swift and reliable conclusion to this war. Peace must be lasting. Not like years ago when Ukraine was forced to cede Crimea and the eastern part of the country, and Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack,” Zelensky emphasized in his post.
European Leaders to Join Talk with Trump
At 19:00 Polish time, he will speak with U.S. President Donald Trump. After two hours, European leaders will join the leaders. Until now, the participation in the White House negotiations has been confirmed by: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
