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Medvedtjuk/Ukrainska soldater som lämnat Azovstal, arkivbild.

”Den som stöttar kriget lär inte gilla fångutbytet”

Onsdagens fångutväxling mellan Ukraina och Ryssland, som bland annat inkluderade en svensk, är den största utväxlingen länderna emellan sedan Putin inledde invasionen i februari. Det rapporterar flera medier.

Den proryske ukrainske politikern och oligarken Viktor Medvedtjuk beskrivs som den mest högprofilerade som släppts, då han är en nära allierad till Kreml och Vladimir Putin, skriver bland annat Washington Post.

Han är gudfar till Putins dotter, har kallats den ryska presidentens ”högra hand”, och greps av ukrainska styrkor i april.

Enligt The Telegraph har utbytet fått den tidigare ryske officeren Igor Girkin att ilskna till. På Twitter är han kritisk till att försvarare av stålverket Azovstal har släppts, och kallar det för ”förräderi”.

BBC-reportern Liza Fokht förutspådde redan under onsdagskvällen att utbytet kunde irritera vissa ryssar eftersom omkring 200 ukrainska soldater släpptes, i utbyte mot bara Medvedtjuk.

Ryssar som stöttar kriget ”lär inte uppskatta det”, skriver hon.

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Viktor Medvedtjuk
Wikipedia (en)
Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk (Ukrainian: Віктор Володимирович Медведчук, Russian: Виктор Владимирович Медведчук; born 7 August 1954) is a Ukrainian lawyer, business oligarch and politician who is since September 2022 living in exile in Russia. Medvedchuk is considered to be a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician and a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.Prior to being deported from Ukraine Medvedchuk had been elected as People's Deputy of Ukraine on 29 August 2019. He served as the chairman of the pro-Russian political organization Ukrainian Choice from 2018 to 2022. He is an opponent of Ukraine joining the European Union.From 1997 to 2002 Medvedchuk had already been a member of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament). Medvedchuk served between 2002 and 2005 as chief of staff to former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma. After this he was absent from national politics until 2018. In November 2018, Medvedchuk was elected chairman of the political council of the political party For Life, which later merged into the Opposition Platform — For Life party. In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party won 37 seats on the nationwide party list and six constituency seats. As he placed third on the 2019 election list of Opposition Platform — For Life, Medvedchuk was elected to the Verkhovna Rada.On 19 February 2021, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine included Medvedchuk and his wife, Oksana Marchenko, on the Ukrainian sanctions list, due to alleged financing of terrorism. On 11 May 2021, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine accused Medvedchuk of treason and attempted looting of national resources in Crimea (which had been annexed by Russia but remains internationally recognised as Ukrainian). Medvedchuk's house arrest started on 13 May 2021. Medvedchuk escaped this house arrest on 28 February 2022, four days after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and went missing. On 8 March 2022 he was removed from the post of co-chairman of Opposition Platform — For Life. On 12 April 2022 Medvedchuk was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). On 21 September 2022, Medvedchuk (together with other 55 Russian prisoners of war) was exchanged for 215 Ukrainian POWs from the Siege of Mariupol.Medvedchuk is considered an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, whom Medvedchuk has referred to as "a personal friend". Putin is the godfather of Medvedchuk's youngest daughter.
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