Foreign fighters, strait rules and a prisoner swap: early January 2024
A look back at how Nepal, Russia, Turkey and the UAE each shaped the foreign-facing side of the war in the first days of 2024.
What did the war look like beyond the front line on 5 January 2024? Several developments in the preceding days showed how far its effects reached into the policies of other states.
On 5 January 2024, Nepal suspended the issuance of permits allowing its citizens to work in Russia and Ukraine, after 10 Nepalis were killed while serving in the Russian Army. The decision was a direct response to losses among its own nationals in a war far from home.
The suspension followed a decree issued on 4 January 2024 by Russian President Vladimir Putin. It granted Russian citizenship to foreigners who fight for Russia in the war against Ukraine, and to their families. Taken together, the two measures put the recruitment of foreign nationals at the centre of attention: one government offered a path to citizenship, while another moved to halt labour permits tied to the conflict.
Diplomacy and the straits
On 3 January 2024, Ukraine and Russia completed their first prisoner exchange in nearly five months, releasing over 200 people on each side. The United Arab Emirates mediated the exchange. It showed that a channel for humanitarian arrangements remained open even as fighting continued.
The same day, Turkey denied access to the Black Sea to two Royal Navy minehunters. Ankara said their transit of the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits would violate the Montreux Convention of 1936. The episode placed military aid to Ukraine in the context of rules governing passage through the straits.
What the days showed
The pattern across these days was of third countries making their own decisions: a mediator brokering a swap, a transit state applying a treaty, a labour-sending country curbing permits. Each acted within its own legal and political framework, and each affected how the war touched people and forces outside the two belligerents.
