Status: 04/18/2022 2:09 p.m
Russian state TV has shown a video of two Brits asking to be exchanged for oligarch Medvechuk. Shortly thereafter, Ukraine released a video of the detained Medvechuk also requesting an exchange.
Two Britons apparently captured by Russian forces in Ukraine have asked on Russian state television to be exchanged for a pro-Russian politician jailed in Ukraine. According to the Reuters news agency, the two men are Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, who fought on the side of Ukraine in Mariupol.
In the video that State TV showed, it was unclear how freely they spoke. Both were asked to speak separately by a man believed to be journalist Andrei Rudenko, according to the AFP news agency. In their statements, they asked British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to help bring them home in exchange for the oligarch Viktor Medvechuk, who is being held in Ukraine.
Shaun Pinner said: “We would like to exchange myself and Aiden Aslin 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 exchanged for Medvechuk. There was a wound on his forehead and he wore a T-shirt with the emblem of the partly ultra-nationalist Azov regiment.
Ukraine releases Medvechuk video
The Ukrainian oligarch Medvechuk, who is also a politician from 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 in the recording to be exchanged for the soldiers and civilians trapped in Mariupol. In this recording, too, it is 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 an exchange
According to Reuters, the video with the two Britons also shows how the unidentified 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 that Boris [Johnson] should listen to what Oksana said.”