Russia is deliberately delaying the return of two Ukrainian border guards detained at the border in Sumy region, with the aim of exchanging them for employees of the Russian special services who were detained earlier on the administrative border with Crimea, Ukrainian State Border Service spokesman Oleh Slobodian has said.
"We suspect that Russia will most likely try to exchange two of our servicemen for two Russian border guards who we detained several months ago on the administrative border with the temporarily occupied Crimea," he said live on Espreso.TV late on October 24.
He said that the situation with border guards who disappeared when patrolling a section of the border in Sumy region could be solved at one meeting, but the Russian side refused to establish contact.
"As part of normal working cooperation, on peaceful sections of the border, this issue is resolved within one meeting within one or two days after the incident if there are no aggravating circumstances," Slobodian said.
He added that the State Border Service was still unaware of the whereabouts of the missing servicemen, their condition and how they got into Russia.
As reported, on October 3, two employees of the State Border Service of Ukraine disappeared in Sumy region near the border with Russia. Later, Russia officially confirmed the detention of two Ukrainian border guards. The Ukrainian consul was denied a conversation with the detainees. Later Slobodian said that the Russian side had agreed to a border representative meeting on the fate of the detained border guards.
