Two Britons believed to have fought with Ukrainian troops in Mariupol have been pictured on Russian state TV. In a video, the two men ask to be exchanged for the entrepreneur Medvedchuk, a Putiv confidante.
Russian state television has released video of two alleged British prisoners of war asking to be exchanged for pro-Russian Ukrainian entrepreneur Viktor Medvedchuk. In the video broadcast on Monday, the two haggard-looking men addressed Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson and asked him to negotiate their release. At almost the same time, the Ukrainian domestic intelligence service released a video of the arrested Medvedchuk asking to be exchanged for the remaining Ukrainian defenders and residents of Mariupol.
According to the Russian state broadcaster WGTRK, the alleged British prisoners of war are Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, who are said to have fought for Kyiv in the Ukraine war. The British newspaper “Guardian” also reported on the case. In the video, the two men do not comment on whether they are being held by the Russian army or by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The location of the recording was also initially unclear. According to Russian media reports, the men were arrested in the southern Ukrainian port of Mariupol, which has been heavily contested for weeks.
British soldiers in the service of the Ukrainian troops
The two men in the video are questioned by WGTRK journalist Andrej Rudenko. He shows them a video published last week by Medvedchuk’s wife Oxana Marchenko, in which she calls for her husband to be exchanged for the two Britons. The two prisoners then ask for such an exchange in English.
“Hi, I’m Shaun Pinner. I’m a UK citizen. I was captured in Mariupol,” British newspaper The Guardian quoted the video as saying. The former soldier in the British Army is 48 years old and comes from Bedfordshire. Aslin, 28, is from Nottinghamshire and is said to have surrendered with his Ukrainian battalion last week after running out of ammunition, the newspaper reports.
Aslin’s mother, Ang Wood, asked for her son’s release in an interview with the British newspaper “Daily Telegraph” on Friday. The 28-year-old is a “member of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and as such is a prisoner of war who must be treated with humanity,” she said.
Ukraine: Exchange Medvedchuk for residents of Mariupol
The pro-Russian businessman Medvedchuk was arrested in Ukraine last week. He is accused, among other things, of having passed on Ukrainian military secrets to Moscow. He had been charged with high treason and placed under house arrest last year. Shortly after the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine on February 24, he went into hiding and was caught last week.
In the video released by the Ukrainian secret service SBU, Medvedchuk, dressed in black, looks straight into the camera and addresses the heads of state of Russia and Ukraine: “I would like to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stand up to me against the Ukrainian defenders and exchange residents of Mariupol.” For the people of Mariupol there is “no possibility of a safe exit through humanitarian corridors”.
Rich Ukrainian godfather of Putin’s youngest daughter
Medvedchuk is considered a close confidant of Putin. According to the entrepreneur, the Kremlin boss is the godfather of his youngest daughter. With an estimated fortune of $620 million, Medvedchuk is the 12th richest Ukrainian.
Last week, Zelenskyi offered to exchange Medvedchuk for Ukrainian prisoners of war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov then declared that Medvedchuk was “not a Russian citizen”.
Source: Stern
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