An exchange of prisoners between Ukrainian soldiers, prisoners of the Russian army after the Azovstal steelworks was handed over, would still be an open hypothesis, but “almost impossible” if the pro-Russian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk was also involved in the negotiations. From inside the Kremlin, Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko, quoted by Tass, is keeping hope alive that the militants who resisted at the Mariupol plant for three months will not face a possible Russian court, as separatist leaders have feared in recent days Donbass. “I believe that anything that doesn’t contradict common sense is possible,” Rudenko said, although he doesn’t take the responsibility of voicing an official Kremlin position: “It’s not my responsibility.” There is probably quarreling, and all these things are discussed ».
The Kremlin’s brake
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who, according to Tass, put it more clearly: “It is almost impossible to talk about the possibility of replacing the Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk with the nationalists who left Azovstal”. Peskov confirmed that negotiations on prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine are underway “in one form or another”, but also reiterated that the oligarch is a Ukrainian citizen: “He has nothing to do with Russia and is not Military. And in the case of people who surrendered to Azovstal, we are talking about military men and members of nationalist formations ». For this reason, Peskov added: “These are completely different categories of people and it is almost impossible to talk about exchange here”.
