Wednesday’s Saudi-brokered prisoner swap deal between Kyiv and Moscow included the name of Viktor Medvedev, a Ukrainian politician close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine had previously announced that it had released 55 prisoners of war in exchange for the release of 215 Russian prisoners.
It is the largest prisoner exchange deal between Russia and Ukraine since the war between the two countries began on February 24.
According to France, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that as part of the exchange, which “took a long time to prepare”, Moscow will send five military leaders who are “superheroes”, including the commanders of the Azov battalion, who are from Azofestal steel factory was defended and released. Press “.”.
The swap deal was brokered by Saudi Arabia, and U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan thanked Saudi Arabia for making the deal, which included the release of American citizens, as well as Kyiv.
Among those freed was Ukrainian politician and businessman Viktor Medovchuk, who was arrested shortly after the start of the war while trying to flee Ukraine, knowing that he was under house arrest before the start of the war, but It ran away.
Ukrainian authorities banned the “Opposition Platform – For Life” party, led by Medvedchuk.
As the war broke out, Medvedev’s name was floated as a possible candidate to lead a pro-Russian interim government in Kyiv if Moscow managed to topple the Zelensky regime.
Earlier, Russia refused to carry out a prisoner swap with Ukraine that would have freed Medvedchuk because he is a foreign citizen.
Source: Lebanon Debate
