International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Peter Maurer visits a children's hospital, which is under reconstruction in the rebel-controlled town of Horlivka (Gorlovka) near Donetsk, Ukraine, November 6, 2020.
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Peter Maurer visits a children's hospital, which is under reconstruction in the rebel-controlled town of Horlivka (Gorlovka) near Donetsk, Ukraine, November 6, 2020. Reuters / ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told Reuters on Tuesday that he was "cautiously positive" that the aid agency would gain access to Ukrainian and Russian troops detained in the context of the conflict.

Peter Maurer, ICRC President, said that this was based on a "good understanding" of the neutral aid agency's work from his discussions with senior officials on both sides of the nearly week-old conflict.

Maurer, asked about detainee visits, said: "It hasn't happened yet. But I am cautiously positive from my conversations now over the last couple of days with Ukrainian and Russian interlocutors that there is a good understanding of what the legal situation is, and about the importance of ICRC having access (to detainees) and being able to do that work."

He added: "It will need security, logistics, everything in place. That's not for tomorrow, immediately. But I haven't found political objections, either from the one side or another side, to ICRC's basic and core mandate functions."