High-ranking human rights representatives of Ukraine and Russia exchanged letters and Christmas packages for prisoners of war at a meeting in Belarus, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
The exchange was confirmed yesterday by Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lyubinets and Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova.
They did not specify the location of the meeting in Belarus, which is a close ally of Russia and also borders Ukraine.
This is the first publicly known contact between such high-ranking state representatives of the warring countries in many months.
Moskalkova wrote in “Telegram“, that 1,500 Christmas packages for prisoners of war and letters from relatives were exchanged.
According to Lyubinets, lists of prisoners of war and Ukrainian civilians detained in Russia were also handed over.
The action is related to the return of more than 500 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers from Russia, announced earlier yesterday, DPA reports.
It is not clear whether the return of the bodies took place in Belarus, which, despite its political ties with Russia, served as a venue for negotiations in the first weeks of the war in 2022.
Both sides said that the International Committee of the Red Cross mediated the exchange.