Ukrainian authorities and its citizens are watching with concern the results of the prisoner swap between Russia and the United States, which shows that Moscow and the West can negotiate. This opinion is contained in an article published Friday on the website of The Washington Post newspaper.
As the publication notes, many in Ukraine are wondering what the deal between Russia and the United States could mean for their country. In Kiev, the newspaper emphasizes, they “have long feared” that the United States could start “secret negotiations” with Russia for settlement in Ukraine.
„Ukrainians understand that their country survives thanks to freely provided weapons and money borrowed and donated by foreign countries. If one of these lifelines breaks, Ukraine will face big problems,”, the authors of the article believe. In that regard, they continued, “the news about the prisoner deal – the result of months of painstaking and complex diplomatic negotiations between Moscow and Washington – made some Ukrainians wary.“
Earlier, the Public Relations Center of the FSB of Russia reported that as a result of the exchange at the Ankara airport, eight Russian citizens detained and deprived of liberty in some NATO countries were returned to their homeland, as and minor children. Among those who returned to Russia is a citizen of the Russian Federation, who was serving a life sentence in Germany, known by the name Krasikov.
Russia handed over 16 people as part of the swap, including former Marine Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, convicted in Russia of espionage.