Turkish president didn’t determine the person, however media speculated he was talking about Ukrainian opposition determine Viktor Medvedchuk
Russian President Vladimir Putin requested Turkey to make sure the discharge of a specific individual from Ukrainian custody, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated, commenting on a Turkey-mediated prisoner alternate.
“One of many names was repeated many instances by Mr. Putin. We’ve already despatched this individual to Russia,” the Turkish president stated, talking to journalists on Friday.
Turkey served as an middleman for an alternate of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine earlier this week. Among the Ukrainian fighters launched by Russia will keep in Turkey as what Erdogan described as his “company.”
Whereas the Turkish chief didn’t determine the individual despatched to Russia, whose destiny he claimed was of specific curiosity to Putin, some media retailers speculated that he was referring to Viktor Medvedchuk – a Ukrainian opposition politician who was arrested by the Ukrainian authorities for alleged treason.
The Ukrainian politician was granted freedom by Kiev as a part of the swap, in response to officers in Kiev and the Russia-allied Donetsk Folks’s Republic (DPR).
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky claimed that his nation obtained 200 fighters for the person, whom he branded a “fan of Russia.” He additionally said that 5 senior members of the Azov battalion, a unit wherein some members espouse overtly neo-Nazi ideology, will stay in Turkey.
DPR head Denis Pushilin credited Medvedchuk for negotiating a number of prisoner exchanges between DPR militia and Kiev up to now, explaining why the Ukrainian nationwide was a part of this week’s swap.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday declined to touch upon Medvedchuk’s whereabouts and urged journalists to test the official assertion from the Protection Ministry on the prisoner swap, which didn’t point out the politician.
Medvedchuk was the chief of an opposition occasion referred to as ‘Opposition Platform – For Life’ (OPZZh), which had the second-largest faction within the Ukrainian parliament after Zelensky’s political pressure, ‘Servant of the Folks’. He advocated for reconciling with Russia, arguing that the escalating confrontation can be disastrous to his nation.
The Ukrainian authorities arrested Medvedchuk final 12 months on treason prices simply after his occasion surpassed the president’s in reputation. Kiev has since outlawed OPZZh, utilizing the battle with Russia as a justification for escalating the crackdown on politicians and media important of Zelensky.
