Are we heading for a prisoner exchange?
Russian public television on Monday broadcast calls from two prisoners, identified as British nationals, Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, captured during fighting in Ukraine, asking Prime Minister Boris Johnson to negotiate their release.
The two men, who appear with drawn features, are asking to be exchanged for Viktor Medvedchuk, a wealthy Ukrainian businessman close to Vladimir Putin arrested in Ukraine.
They do not specify who is currently holding them, Russian forces or their separatist allies in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine.
Their place of detention is not known.
The two recordings are presented as interviews with journalist Andreï Roudenko, of the Russian public television (VGTRK).
The latter shows the two men a video published last week by Oksana Marchenko, the wife of Viktor Medvedchuk, who asks for the exchange of her husband against the two Britons.
The detainees then take the floor in English to ask for an exchange.
The place of their detention is not specified.
According to Russian media, the two men were captured after fighting on the Ukrainian side in Mariupol.
They are believed to be from a unit that surrendered last week to Russian forces.
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