The Washington Post explained why Kiev was alarmed by the news of a prisoner swap between the United States and Russia

The exchange of prisoners between the West and Moscow has worried Kiev. In the opinion of the Ukrainian side, this indicates that Washington and the Kremlin may conduct other negotiations behind Ukraine's back, for example, on making peace with the Russian Federation not in Kiev's interests. This is reported by The Washington Post.

The publication emphasises that the scale, complexity and secrecy of this operation, carried out thanks to months of painstaking and complex diplomatic negotiations between the United States and the Russian Federation, have not gone unnoticed by everyone.

And although the Kremlin yesterday rejected views that the exchange agreement could lead to the signing of another treaty - on the cessation of war, Kiev is concerned that secret contacts on this issue between Moscow and Washington could be going on right now," the publication writes.

At the same time, the Office of the President emphasised that Ukraine is "too independent" to be bypassed or have its vision of a ceasefire imposed on it.

At the same time, Kiev realises that it is holding on to the frontline thanks to weapons and money from abroad. And if one of these lines is cut, Ukraine will be in trouble," the journalists point out.

WP recalls that 10 years ago, when the conflict with Russia started, French and German leaders Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel pushed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to sign a ceasefire agreement, known as the Minsk agreements, on very unfavourable terms for Kiev.