Status: 04/18/2022 14:09
Russian state TV showed a video of two Britons asking to be replaced by the oligarch Medvechuk. Shortly afterward, Ukraine released a video of the detained Medvechuk also requesting an exchange.
Two Britons apparently captured by Russian forces in Ukraine asked on Russian state television to be exchanged for a pro-Russian politician imprisoned in Ukraine. According to the Reuters news agency, the two men are Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, who fought alongside Ukraine in Mariupol.
In the video that state TV showed, it was unclear how freely they spoke. Both were invited to speak separately by a man believed to be journalist Andrei Rudenko, according to the AFP news agency. In their remarks, they asked British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to help bring them home in exchange for oligarch Viktor Medvechuk, who is being held in Ukraine.
Shaun Pinner said, “We would like to trade Aiden Aslin and I for Mr. Medvechuk. Of course, I would greatly appreciate your help in this matter,” he told Johnson. Pinner went on to state that he was treated well. Aslin also expressed a desire to be replaced by Medvechuk. There was a wound on his forehead and he was wearing a T-shirt with the emblem of the partially ultranationalist Azov regiment.
Ukraine releases video of Medvechuk
Ukrainian oligarch Medvechuk, who is also a politician in a pro-Russian opposition party, was arrested a few days ago by the Ukrainian secret service SBU. He has been under house arrest since May 2021 because, among other things, he was being investigated for high treason. According to Ukrainian sources, he fled a few days after Russia invaded Ukraine. Medvechuk says he is the godfather of Putin’s youngest daughter.
Almost simultaneously with the release of footage of the two British fighters on Russian state television, the SBU released a video of Medvechuk. Addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he asked on the recording to be exchanged for the soldiers and civilians trapped in Mariupol. In this recording it is also unclear how freely Medvechuk was able to speak.
After Medvechuk’s arrest last week, Zelenskyy Moscow offered to exchange him for Ukrainian prisoners. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Medvechuk was not a Russian citizen.
Medvechuk’s wife also asks for exchange
According to Reuters, the video with the two Brits also shows how the unnamed interviewer shows them a video on a smartphone of Medvechuk’s wife Oksana asking them to exchange the two prisoners of war for her husband. Aslin said “I think Boris [Johnson] should hear what Oksana said.”