Oligarch against Azov fighters?

Kremlin man brings explosive prisoner exchange into play

Created: 05/22/2022, 09:17

The image released by the Russian state news agency Sputnik is said to show soldiers of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic escorting a bus with wounded Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol.

© Alexei Kudenko/dpa

The oligarch Medvedchuk is considered a close ally of Putin and has been arrested in Ukraine.

Will there be an exchange?

The news ticker on diplomacy in the Ukraine war.

• Escalated Ukraine conflict: There is a new push for a

  prisoner exchange in Mariupol

  .

• In focus:

  Viktor Medvedchuk

  , a close friend of Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

• The

  oligarch

  and Ukrainian politician is currently under

  house arrest

  in Ukraine .

• This news ticker

  on the Ukraine-Russia negotiations and on war diplomacy

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Moscow - He is a Russian oligarch and is considered a Putin confidant: Viktor

Medvedchuk.

A possible exchange of Medvechuk for captured Ukrainian fighters from the Azov regiment is now under discussion.

"We will study the issue," Russian foreign policy chief and negotiator Leonid Slutsky said on May 21.

This is reported by the Interfax and RIA Novosti news agencies.

The Ukrainian politician and entrepreneur Medvedchuk, who is one of the richest people in the country, was accused of high treason in Ukraine last year and placed under house arrest.

However, shortly after the start of the Ukraine war on February 24, he went into hiding before being arrested in mid-April.

Weeks ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed exchanging Medvedchuk for Ukrainian prisoners.

Ukraine negotiations: Putin ally Medvechuk against Azov fighters?

On Friday (May 20) Moscow reported the “complete liberation” of the Azov steelworks in Mariupol, Ukraine.

The last soldiers in the industrial complex, including members of the Azov regiment, surrendered, the Russian army said.

They had holed up in the bunkers for weeks and defended the port city against the Russian occupiers.

Handout from the Ukrainian Press Office: oligarch and Putin ally Viktor Medvedchuk © Uncredited/Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/AP/dpa

The Azov regiment is described by Moscow as "neo-Nazi".

Next Thursday, Russia's highest court is due to consider an application to classify the regiment as a "terrorist organization," which could make it more difficult to exchange these prisoners.

After the capture of Mariupol, however, several politicians in Russia also spoke out against a prisoner exchange and called for the Mariupol fighters to be brought to justice.

Slutski later said the same thing, partially correcting his statement.

He announced via Telegram that the Azov fighters would have to be brought to justice in any case.