Zelensky proposes to Moscow to exchange pro-Russian leader Medvedchuk for prisoners of war

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyhas proposed to Moscow to exchange the leader of the pro-Russian Ukrainian party Opposition Platform for Life, Viktor Medvedchuk, by girls and boys prisoners of war, in Russian captivity.

Zelensky has explained that Medvedchuk, of which he has published this Tuesday on his social networks a photograph in which he appears handcuffed, He was hidden for more than 40 days, and has described his capture as “symbolic”.

⚡️BREAKING: Pro-Kremlin lawmaker, Putin’s crony Medvedchuk captured.

Zelensky announced that Viktor Medvedchuk, a lawmaker with the pro-Kremlin party Opposition Platform was captured by the Security Service. Medvedchuk is accused of treason. I have escaped house arrest in February. pic.twitter.com/M3SIi65uht

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 12, 2022

Hours before the usual evening speech of the Ukrainian leader, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine Ivan Bakanov had confirmed that Medvedchuk was wearing Ukrainian military clothing to hide among the national forces, according to Ukrainian agencies.

In this sense, Zelensky has pointed out that these actions of dressing up as a Ukrainian military show “cynicism”. “It is important that our police and military bodies also consider this possibility (the exchange),” added the Ukrainian president.

After Zelensky’s publication came to light, the spokesman for the Ukrainian Presidency, Mijailo Podoliak, He had assured on his social networks that “today Medvedchuk has to hide in a Ukrainian prison to survive.” “His life is guaranteed by a long prison sentence,” has stated.

For its part, Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov has affected, after transcending the information, that it is necessary to wait to verify the veracity of the photograph in the face of the great flow of false information that is given these days, according to the Russian agency TASS.

The pro-Russian leader ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin He was under house arrest for more than a year accused of treason. However, at the end of February, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was announced that he had escaped, according to the Ukrainian press.

The Ukrainian authorities imposed last year a package of sanctions against Medvedchuk and other pro-Russian politicians, including his wife, in the context of an investigation into the financing of terrorism. kyiv then reported that all the assets of these opponents are subject to sanctions for a period of three years.

Aside from this, Zelensky has also pointed out that, despite the fact that some images of war crimes have already been knowna in cities like Bucha, the mass murders in Borodyanka, Gostomel, Makariv, Chernigov or in the Kharkov and Donbas regions, “they haven’t been commented on yet.”

“There is a growing body of evidence and other official data on the terrible crimes of the invaders in the areas where, unfortunately, they were able to enter. About the violence of the Russian military against women, against children. About multiple rape,” she has said.

In addition, he has pointed out that Ukrainian authorities will establish “the full truth” about all these crimes. “No matter how much time and effort it takes, we will find everyone (those responsible),” he added.

Regarding the possible use of chemical weapons during an attack on the port city of Mariupoldenounced by the Azov Battalion, a far-right group dependent on the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior, Zelenski has specified that it is not possible to draw “one hundred percent” conclusions as to what type of substances they were, even more so when the investigations take place in the middle of the battles.

“Given the repeated threats of Russian propaganda against the use of chemical weapons against the defenders of Mariupol, and taking into account the repeated use of phosphorus munitions by the Russian Army, for example, in Ukraine, the world must react,” he asked.

Thus, Zelensky has reminded us that we must “react proactively”, since these events will be “a humiliation for the democratic world”. For this reason, he has reiterated his request to “multiply the sanctions packages”.

On the other hand, the Ukrainian president thanked the President of the United States, Joe Biden, who has described Russian actions in the country as “genocide”. “True words from a true leader,” she has said.

“Calling things by their name is essential to deal with evil. We are grateful for the US assistance provided so far and urgently need more heavy weapons to prevent further Russian atrocities,” Zelensky said on his official Twitter profile.

The Biden Administration has accused Putin of war crimes, but until now he had not referred to his actions in Ukraine as “genocide”, a term that has been used by the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky.

“The evidence is mounting. It looks different than last week. More evidence is literally coming out of the horrible things that the Russians have done in Ukraine,” Trump said, adding that “we will learn more and more about the devastation.

In this regard, he has made it clear that international lawyers will decide whether to classify these actions as “genocide”. “That’s how it seems to us,” Biden reiterated in a meeting with journalists after a press conference in the state of Iowa.

This semantic escalation comes after the Bucha massacres, where more than 400 bodies have been found, many of them handcuffed civilians, and at the Kramatorsk station, where Russian missiles killed more than 50 people.