Three diplomatic fronts for Kyiv on 30 December 2024
A retrospective on a day that combined a prisoner exchange, a new opening in Damascus and an energy row with Slovakia.
What did Kyiv's diplomacy look like on 30 December 2024, two days before a planned halt to Russian oil transit? It ran on three tracks at once: one humanitarian, one exploratory and one openly adversarial.
A prisoner exchange
On 30 December 2024, Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates. Ukraine said that many of those released by Russia were soldiers captured during the Siege of Mariupol in 2022. The exchange showed that, even in the middle of the war, the two sides could still reach agreements through a third-party mediator.
An opening in Damascus
The same day, Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha met Syria's de-facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus. The two countries re-established diplomatic relations. Syria said it hoped to form a strategic partnership with Ukraine, and Ukraine vowed to send additional food aid to Syria. The meeting tied Ukraine's foreign policy to a country far from its own front line, with food aid as the concrete offer.
The Slovak dispute
The third track was less cooperative. On 28 December 2024, Slovakia threatened reciprocal measures, including suspending electricity supplies, in response to Ukraine's plan to suspend the transit of Russian oil to Slovakia on 1 January. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy replied by accusing Slovakia of opening a second energy front against Kyiv under Moscow's orders.
The row had a longer lineage. According to later background, it grew out of a dispute that began when Ukraine tightened sanctions on Lukoil on 24 June 2024. That step included a ban on the company's oil supplies and the reassignment of its contractual obligations to supply Hungary and Slovakia through the Druzhba pipeline. Officials in Hungary and Slovakia complained of a looming energy crisis, but the European Commission, after examining the situation, saw no reason for concern.
What the day showed
Taken together, the three developments suggest how many audiences Ukraine's foreign policy had to address at once: a wartime adversary on the practical matter of prisoners, a new partner in the Middle East, and a neighbouring EU member over energy. The first two involved agreement. The third involved threats and accusations just before the 1 January date.
