Kyiv offers to exchange Russian billionaire for Ukrainian prisoners
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has offered Russia to exchange Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian deputy and billionaire who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, with Ukrainians held captive by Russia, shortly after Kyiv announced the re-arrest of this rich man after escaping from house arrest.
“I offer the Russian Federation to exchange this man of yours for our young men and women who are currently detained” by the Russians, Zelensky said in a video message broadcast via the Telegram application.
And the Ukrainian security services announced earlier on Tuesday the arrest of Medvedchuk, the closest and most influential ally of President Putin in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president posted a picture online showing Medvedchuk with his hair scattered and his hands bound, in a Ukrainian army uniform.
The Ukrainian president indicated on his Telegram channel that "a special operation was carried out thanks to the Ukrainian Security Service."
The agency later confirmed in a statement the arrest of Medvedchuk, who was under house arrest until he was lost days after the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine on February 24.
The commander of the service, Ivan Bakanov, said that the elements of the service carried out a "special lightning and dangerous operation on several levels to arrest" the pro-Russian deputy.
"No traitor will go unpunished and everyone will be held accountable under the laws of Ukraine," the statement added via Telegram.
Medvedchuk, one of Ukraine's richest people, has sparked controversy because of the close ties he maintains with Moscow.
Putin is a personal friend of the 67-year-old businessman, who is the godfather of his youngest daughter Daria, and has been under house arrest since last year on charges of treason after accusations of trying to steal natural resources from Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and providing Moscow with Ukrainian military secrets. .
Medvedchuk apparently fled shortly after the start of the Russian offensive on Ukraine on February 24.
Police said they did not find him at his home on February 26 and declared him missing the day after that.
Ukraine's actions against Medvedchuk angered the Kremlin, and Putin previously vowed to "respond" to what he described as political persecution.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the news of Medvedchuk's arrest, telling Russian news agencies: "There is a lot of misleading news coming out of Ukraine.
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