• Weapons Satellite warfare: how private companies help Ukraine's defense against Russia

Russia

and

Ukraine

have conducted several prisoner swaps since the

war in Ukraine

began .

Viktor Medvedchuk

has been under arrest by

Ukraine

since April for his ties and friendship with

Russian

President

Vladimir Putin

.

It seemed that

Russia

, more busy advancing on the

war front in Ukraine

, had forgotten about him, but the defeat of

the Azov Battalion

and the arrest of all those who remained in the

steel mill has given

Putin

a new opportunity to

free his friend.

According to a Russian negotiator,

Russia

will consider exchanging prisoners from the Ukrainian

Azov

battalion for

Viktor Medvedchuk

.

update narration

07.05.

Moscow will exchange Azov Battalion prisoners for Putin's millionaire friend

Moscow

will consider swapping prisoners from Ukraine's

Azov

battalion for

Viktor Medvedchuk

, a wealthy businessman close to

Vladimir Putin

, a Russian negotiator has said.

"We are going to study the possibility," said Leonid Slutsky, a member of the Russian negotiating team with

Ukraine

in the breakaway city of

Donetsk

in southeastern Ukraine, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Medvedchuk

, 67, is a politician and one of the richest men in Ukraine, known for his closeness to

Putin

.

He escaped from house arrest after the

Russian invasion

of

Ukraine

in February, but was arrested again in April.

The Russian military announced Friday that the last defenders of

the southeastern

Ukrainian city of

Mariupol

had surrendered after holding out for weeks at the Azovstal steel plant.

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