TEL AVIV, January 31. /TASS/. Efforts toward the release of Elizaveta Tsurkov, a Russian and Israeli citizen, who was kidnapped in Iraq in 2023, continue, the Ynet portal said, citing an Israeli source.
"Various efforts continue to be made to have her released," the source said when asked about her potential exchange for Hezbollah militants serving time in Israeli prisons.
Axios journalist Barak Ravid reported on January 23, citing Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, that Tsurkov is alive and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al Sudani "is making efforts toward her release."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on July 5, 2023 that Tsurkov, who had entered Iraq on a research mission with her Russian passport, was being held by Kataib Hezbollah militants. According to the Israeli radio station Kan, she is an expert on Syria and the Islamic State terrorist group (outlawed in Russia) and was studying the movement of supporters of Shiite imam Muqtada al-Sard in comparison to Lebanese groups.
The Al Hadath television channel reported in July 2023 that her abduction was being investigated by the Iraqi side, which claimed that this case was linked to issues of Iraq’s national security.