MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/. Viktor Medvedchuk, former leader of the Opposition Platform - For Life party, which is banned in Ukraine, who now leads the Other Ukraine movement, has said that he was released in September 2022 as part of an exchange for foreign fighters taken prisoner by Russian forces in Ukraine.
"I was exchanged for foreigners who fought for [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky and were taken prisoner by the Russian army. The exchange that resulted in my release was multi-stage. The lists of those to be swapped included Azov (outlawed in Russia as a terrorist organization) militants, foreigners and other servicemen. I was exchanged for ten foreigners from the general list but the mass media claimed that I was swapped for Azov fighters, which is not true. I learned about the details of the exchange deal only when I was already in Moscow," he said in an interview with France’s Omerta news outlet.
According to Medvedchuk, he had been placed under house arrest on unlawful high treason charges. "When combat operations began, my arrest term expired but on April 12, 2022, I was illegally arrested and placed in a Security Service prison, of which they baked a propaganda show," he went on to say. "I was under constant mental duress, with non-stop death threats."
He stressed that he did what he was charged with merely "to prevent a conflict, to settle things though diplomacy, talks, agreements." "But the Zelensky regime branded such activities as a crime. And all of my actions and agreements infuriated him and his team still more and added to their spirit of repression against me and my colleagues. Zelensky did his utmost to whip up the conflict," he added.