Russia wants to exchange kidnapped Ukrainian border guards for FSB officers - Slobodian

The spokesperson for the State Border Service chairman, Oleh Slobodian, announced this live on the Espreso TV channel.

"We suspect that Russia is most likely trying to exchange our two servicemen for two Russian border guards that we detained several months ago on the administrative border with the temporarily occupied Crimea. We draw such a conclusion due to the Russian side's reluctance to enter dialogue," he said.

Slobodian said that this was evidenced by the refusal of the Russian side to immediately return two Ukrainian border guards from Sumy region and its complete reluctance to discuss this issue.

"As part of proper cooperation, on peaceful sections of the border, this issue is resolved at one meeting within a day or two after the incident if there are no aggravating circumstances," he said.

He said that such situations, in particular, occurred on the Belarusian border, when border guards from Belarus, due to circumstances that did not depend on them, violated the border, and then the State Border Service of Ukraine "transferred them back."

"There were also situations in different years with our border guards," Slobodian said.

However, he said, because of the unilateral refusal of Russians to discuss the issue of the return of two Ukrainian border guards, "it is still not known where our servicemen stay, in what condition they are and under what circumstances they found themselves in Russia."

On October 3, two officers of the Znob-Novhorodske border service unit of the Sumy border detachment monitored a state border section when connection with them was lost. The regional prosecutor's office opened criminal proceedings. Later, the Russian side officially confirmed the arrest of servicemen on the border with Sumy region. The FSB showed a video clip with the "interrogation" of abducted Ukrainian servicemen.

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