Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today proposed the “exchange” of 67-year-old businessman and prominent Russian politician Viktor Medvetsuk, who was arrested yesterday in a Ukrainian secret service operation, with prisoners of war of the Russian armed forces.
“I propose to the Russian Federation to exchange this man with our boys and girls who are currently in captivity in Russia. “… It is important that our security forces and our armed forces also consider this possibility,” Zelenski said in a recorded speech uploaded to the Telegram platform.
Mr. Medvenchuk “to be an example for you. Even the former oligarch could not escape. Not to mention less important criminals (…). “We caught them all,” the head of state added.
Yesterday, the Ukrainian authorities announced the arrest of the oligarch and politician, who escaped after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“A special operation was carried out” by the SBU, Ukraine’s secret service, President Zelensky then said via Telegram, adding “well done!” and uploading a photograph of Mr Medveτσuk depicting him in handcuffs and a Ukrainian military uniform after his arrest.
The SBU did not release any details about the operation. The head of Ivan Ivan Bakanov simply thanked his subordinates for the successful completion of “this extraordinary and dangerous mission.”
Viktor Medvenchuk was placed under house arrest in May 2021 after being prosecuted for “ultimate betrayal” and “attempted looting of natural resources in Crimea”, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
On February 26, two days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, police found him missing when they visited for a search.
The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peshkov, declined to comment on Medvedev’s arrest when questioned. He said that “a lot of false news is coming out of Ukraine” and that “first of all it must be verified” what has happened.
Viktor Medvetsuk, who owned the 12th largest fortune in Ukraine in 2021, amounting to 620 million dollars, according to Forbes magazine, boasted that he has a close personal relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin: according to him, he is the godfather of one of the his daughters.
The founder of the pro-Russian “Opposition Platform – For Life” party, which had elected some 30 members of the Ukrainian parliament before it was outlawed in March after the Russian invasion, was once a negotiator, the Kremlin said. Kiev – in talks between government and separatists in Donbas.
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