Viktor Medvetsyuk, nicknamed the “Prince of Darkness,” who was arrested in Ukraine for spying for Russia and later released in a prisoner exchange with Ukraine, spoke about his release in an interview with a Russian station. He said he doubted until the end that he would be released.
“On the one hand, I wanted to believe, (prisoner – no) that the exchange would happen. On the other hand, I completely doubted that it would happen. I found out that the exchange would happen the next day, and on September 21 I was transferred by plane to Poland; I was on the plane for 12 to 14 hours. I was there until the time. I saw that the negotiations are still going on,” Victor Medvetsyuk said in an interview. Tasse.
He also said that members of the Ukrainian special services held regular talks with him. From their discussions, he concluded that all was not going well for the exchange.
“These fears later proved to be groundless. I clearly understood that the transfer would take place by plane from Poland to Ankara (in Turkey – no),” he added.
Viktor Medvedciuk, a pro-Russian politician with close ties to Vladimir Putin, was arrested in Ukraine in April 2022 following an operation by Ukrainian secret services.
Nicknamed the “Prince of Darkness,” Medvetsyuk escaped house arrest days before Russia invaded Ukraine. He was charged with treason and passing classified information to Russia.
He was later released in a prisoner swap with Ukraine, where Russia freed several Ukrainian fighters from the Azovstal compound in Mariupol.
Viktor Medvechyuk, the second-largest party in the Kiev parliament, a pro-Russian political party, is a Ukrainian citizen but has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he vacationed on the Black Sea. The head of the Kremlin, moreover, is his daughter’s godfather. That is why, since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine, his name has been circulated as a possible replacement for President Volodymyr Zelensky, favored by Moscow.
“Our relationship has grown over 20 years,” Medvetsyuk admitted in an interview with Time magazine last year. “I don’t want to say I use this relationship, but you could say it’s part of my political arsenal,” he said of his ties to Vladimir Putin.
Accused of “high treason” for conducting illegal business in the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, revealing state secrets and pro-Russia activities, Viktor Medvetsyuk has been under house arrest since May last year. .
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