Are we heading for a prisoner exchange? public television Russian broadcast on Monday calls from two prisoners, identified as nationals BritishShaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, captured during fighting in Ukraineasking the Prime Minister Boris Johnson to negotiate their release.
The two men, who appear with drawn features, ask be exchanged for Viktor Medvedchuk, a wealthy Ukrainian businessman near Vladimir Poutine arrested in Ukraine. They do not specify who is currently holding them, Russian forces or their separatist allies in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine.
Their place of detention is not known.
The two recordings are presented as interviews with journalist Andreï Roudenko, of the Russian public television (VGTRK). The latter shows the two men a video published last week by Oksana Marchenko, the wife of Viktor Medvedchuk, who asks for the exchange of her husband against the two Britons.
The detainees then take the floor in English to ask for an exchange. The place of their detention is not specified. According to Russian media, the two men were captured after fighting on the Ukrainian side in Mariupol. They are believed to be from a unit that surrendered last week to Russian forces.