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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