(Reuters) – Pro-Russian Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk appealed in a video launched by Ukraine’s safety service on Monday to be handed over to Moscow in a prisoner swap for Ukrainian forces and civilians trapped in the besieged metropolis of Mariupol.
Medvedchuk made the attraction to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a video printed by the SBU safety service on Facebook. It was unclear how freely Medvedchuk was talking in the video.
He stated was a making a “plea for the Ukrainian facet to alternate me for the defenders of Mariupol and its residents who’re there as we speak don’t have any alternative for a protected exit via a humanitarian hall.”
Medvedchuk, the chief of the Opposition Platform – For Life social gathering, is an ally of Putin.
Medvedchuk had been positioned underneath home arrest final yr to face treason and terrorism financing costs, which he denies. He escaped a couple of days after the Russian invasion started in February, however was later captured by Ukraine.
(Editing by Conor Humphries)
