Britain does not want to help Moscow with the prospect of a prisoner swap that would swap Putin-allied oligarch and Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk for two British fighters captured in Ukraine by Russian forces, a government minister said on Tuesday. .
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis did not confirm to Sky News whether his government is working to bring the fighters back to the UK, saying he would not comment on “what are effectively national security issues”.
Images of both British captives aired on Russian TV.
The two men asked British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to replace them with pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. Medvedchuk was also shown asking to be traded in a video released by Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service via social media.
The fighters previously fought with the UK Armed Forces and volunteered with the Ukrainian military in the fight against Russia.
“They shouldn’t be there, it’s an illegal act to be there,” Secretary Lewis said.
Asked about the possibility of exchanging the British for Medvedchuk, who is currently being held by Ukrainian forces, he said: “We are actually going through the process of applying sanctions against people close to the regime. [do presidente russo Vladimir] Putin. We are not going to see how we can help Russia.”
“We always have a responsibility to British citizens, which we take seriously,” he said. “We have to strike a balance with Ukraine, that’s why I say to anyone, don’t travel illegally to Ukraine. Ukraine’s armed forces are supported by the United Kingdom. We continue to offer that support and this is the right way to do it.”
Lewis encouraged people who want to help Ukraine to do so through the “right channels” — like financially or opening their homes to refugees — “rather than taking very dangerous and really illegal processes to get out” and fight, he said.
Medvedchuk served as an intermediary between Moscow and Kiev after the outbreak of conflict in Donbass in 2014, leveraging his personal ties to Putin. In a 2019 interview with filmmaker Oliver Stone, Putin acknowledged that he was godfather to Medvedchuk’s daughter.
“I wouldn’t say we’re very close, but we know each other well,” Putin said. “He was the president’s chief of staff. [Leonid] Kuchma, and it was in that capacity at the time that he asked me to attend his daughter’s christening. According to Russian Orthodox tradition, you cannot refuse such a request.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced last week that Medvedchuk had been detained in a “special operation”. Medvedchuk’s wife, Oksana Marchenko, posted videos calling for her husband’s release in exchange for captured British citizens.
Source: CNN Brasil
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