Viktor Medvedchuk, leader of the Opposition Platform – For Life political party, attends a court hearing in Kyiv, Ukraine, May 13, 2021. REUTERS/Serhii Nuzhnenko/File Photo
April 13 – Russia on Wednesday told Ukraine to “watch out” after its former Soviet neighbor captured pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Medvedchuk and rejected Kiev’s offer of a swap with warnings that those holding him would be dead , could soon be imprisoned themselves.
Medvedchuk, one of President Vladimir Putin’s close allies in Ukraine, was shown handcuffed and wearing a Ukrainian soldier’s uniform in a picture tweeted by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday.
Zelenskyi suggested replacing Medvedchuk, while the Ukrainian state security service SBU portrayed him as a traitor whose future was in shackles. Continue reading
“These freaks, who call themselves the Ukrainian authorities, say they want to beat out Viktor Medvedchuk’s testimony ‘quickly and fairly’, convict him and then exchange him for prisoners,” said Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council.
“These people should be careful and lock the doors well at night to make sure they don’t become the people being exchanged themselves,” said Medvedev, a close ally of Putin, who was Russia’s president from 2008 to 2012.
In February, Ukraine announced that Medvedchuk, leader of the opposition Platform – For Life party, had escaped from house arrest. Authorities last year opened a treason case against Medvedchuk, who denies wrongdoing.
The Kremlin said the trial of Medvedchuk was politically motivated and denied he had any back-channel to the Russian leadership.
“He had no backstage relationship with Russia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.
“We will follow the fate of Viktor Medvedchuk – and we also call on European politicians to do the same as they are always so concerned about freedom of expression,” Peskov said.
Ukraine’s SBU warned all “pro-Russian traitors and agents of the Russian secret services” that they would be brought to justice “for all contemporary crimes.”
Thousands of people in Ukraine were killed and nearly 10 million displaced after Russia deployed troops to Ukraine on February 24, stoking fears of a wider confrontation between the United States and Russia – the world’s two largest nuclear powers.
Putin says what he calls the “military special operation” in Ukraine is necessary because the United States used Ukraine to threaten Russia and Moscow had to act to defend Ukraine’s Russian-speaking population from persecution.
Ukraine says it is fighting imperial land grabs and dismisses Putin’s claims of genocide as nonsense.
Asked about Ukraine’s proposal to exchange Medvedchuk for Ukrainians held by Russia, Peskov said Medvedchuk was a Ukrainian citizen and a foreign politician.
Reuters reporting; Editing by Conor Humphries