The Ukrainian authorities announced, on Tuesday, that the Ukrainian MP and businessman Viktor Medvedchuk, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has fled since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, was arrested after a “special operation”.
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A special operation was carried out thanks to the SBU [les services de sécurité ukrainiens, NDLR]. Encourage!” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky via his Telegram channel, accompanied by his message with a photo of Viktor Medvedchuk, handcuffed and in Ukrainian army uniform.
The SBU later confirmed his arrest, without elaborating.
You can be a pro-Russian politician and work for the aggressor country for years. You may be on the run. You can even wear a Ukrainian military uniform to wear it…but will it help you escape punishment? Absolutely!” the Security Services commented on Telegram.
- Listen to Guillaume Lavoie’s report on Mario Dumont’s microphone on QUB Radio:
This letter is accompanied by a statement from the head of the SBU, Ivan Bakanov, who thanks his subordinates for their successful leadership of “this exceptional and dangerous mission.”
Viktor Medvedchuk, 67, has been under house arrest since May 2021 after being accused of “high treason” and “attempting to plunder the natural resources of Crimea,” the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
On February 26, two days after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian police noticed his disappearance during a surveillance visit.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment to Russian news agencies on his arrest, saying, “There are a lot of forged from Ukraine” and saying “this should be checked first”.
Victor Medvedchuk, 12And Ukraine’s fortune in 2021 is $620 million, according to the magazine Forbes Known for his relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who, according to him, is considered the godfather of one of his daughters.
He is the founder of the pro-Russian opposition platform Platform for Life, which had about 30 deputies in the Verkhovna Rada before it was banned in March, after the Russian attack.
Zelensky offers to “exchange” Putin’s imprisoned relative for Ukrainians in captivity
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered Tuesday evening in Moscow a “exchange” of Ukrainian MP and businessman Viktor Medvedchuk, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was recently arrested, against the Ukrainians detained in Russia.
“I am offering the Russian Federation to replace this man with our boys and girls who are currently in captivity in Russia,” Zelensky said in the title of a video posted on Telegram.
