Russian negotiator and Member of Parliament Leonid Slutsky said on Saturday that Russia would examine the possibility of transferring militants from the captured Ukrainian Azov battalion to the pro-Russian Ukrainian deputy and millionaire Viktor Medvetsuk.
“Let’s study the issue,” Slutsky said.A member of the Russian delegation in recent talks with Kiev was quoted by the Russian news agency Rhea Novosti when asked about the transfer of such prisoners.
Speaking at a press conference in the secluded city of Donetsk in southeastern Ukraine, Slutsky said the possibility of a transfer would be referred to as “those in power” in Moscow.
Victor Medvetsuk, 67, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was re-arrested in Ukraine in mid-April after fleeing the start of a Russian military offensive on February 24.
Medvetsuk has been under house arrest since May 2021 After the Ukrainian peninsula was accused of “high treason” linked by Russia in 2014 and “attempted to plunder natural resources in Crimea.”
On Friday, the Russian military announced the surrender of the last Ukrainian guards in the strategic city of Mariupol, which had been entrenched for weeks on the premises of the Azovstel Steelworks. Among them are members of the Azov battalion, an ultra-nationalist faction that considers the Kremlin neo-Nazi, and hopes to release Kiev in exchange for Russian prisoners.
Next Thursday, the Russian Supreme Court will consider the request for classification Azov Battalion A “terrorist organization”, which complicates the transfer of prisoners.
Azov. Neo-Nazis or Russian propaganda? History and ideology of the brigade opposed by Mariupol
Donetsk separatist leader Denis Buchilin told a news conference this Saturday Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered in defense of the Azovstal factory should be prosecuted.
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