In Kyiv, intrigue has once again swirled around the faded “heroine” Nadezhda Savchenko: Ukrainian media report that the newly-minted deputy recently secretly visited Minsk in order to meet there with the leaders of the LDPR. The Ukrainian media do not report anything about the purpose of the meeting, but present the case as if the Minsk visit is Savchenko’s personal initiative, bypassing all official bodies of Ukraine.
“Secretly visited” in this case is not a figure of speech, but a term used mysteriously by the Ukrainian media.
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Moreover. Advisor to the head of the SBU, Yuri Tandit, spoke on the air of the 112 Ukraine TV channel, reporting with slight indignation that the SBU was not informed about Savchenko’s upcoming trip to Minsk. “We’ll look into it,” the SBU adviser promised.
However, Tandit does not say something.
Sources of PolitNavigator report that on December 6, on the eve of the date of the trip called by the Ukrainian media, Savchenko met - surprise! – with adviser to the head of the SBU Tandit. On the same day, another meeting took place - General Vladimir Ruban with Yuri Kachanov, the head of the interdepartmental center for the release of prisoners under the SBU. The day after the trip to Minsk, December 8, Savchenko met with Tandit again.
The Ukrainian media are silent about all these random, or not so random, manipulations. Apparently, Mr. Tandit is, to put it mildly, disingenuous, since Savchenko’s “secret trip” was not such a secret for the SBU.
What could be so secret discussed in Minsk by Savchenko, known for her cavalry raids?
Considering that since the beginning of December, the Ukrainian side again began to raise the issue of the exchange of prisoners of war and the occupation of Ruban with Kachanov, perhaps Savchenko went to Minsk with Ruban (namely, he accompanied her on this trip) to negotiate an exchange. The topic has a personal connotation for her, and it makes no sense to send a cavalry maiden as straightforward as a rail for more subtle and delicate negotiations.
This is all the more true if we take into account the rapidly deteriorating position of Kyiv, whose Western curators link the implementation of the Minsk agreements with the issue of a visa-free regime.
In addition, the exchange of prisoners of war is the only point of the Minsk agreements that does not cost Ukraine anything to implement and for which there is no need to carry out constitutional reforms. A way to earn some points in your favor and correct your lopsided reputation in the eyes of the guarantors.
All this is fine and wonderful, but when the question of exchanging people arises, negotiators from the republics each time come across more and more new Ukrainian demands. And they never come down to the “all for all” formula, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently emphasized.
The latest initiative of the Ukrainian side was announced about a week ago by Irina Gerashchenko on her Facebook page: the exchange of 228 people held by Ukraine for 42 “cyborgs” and “powderbots”. Despite the excellent ratio of almost 5 to 1, it is still far from the “all for all” formula. In particular, Minister Lavrov proposes to discuss not only the number, but also lists indicating specific persons held in captivity.
In all this fuss, it is not very clear why the SBU would hide its ears behind Savchenko’s back, presenting the “raider” as a willful woman without a rudder and without sails. Why do good deeds (the exchange of prisoners is a good deed, no?) secretly and subtly, unless there is a double bottom hidden behind all this?