Captured Russophile and Putin BFF Viktor Medvedchuk asks to be exchanged for Ukrainian prisoners.
pic.twitter.com/0QGWTZvUJQ
— Dr. Ian Garner (@irgarner) April 18, 2022
Posted on 09/21/2022 8:55:08 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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Wednesday, September 21, 2022, Ukrainian authorities announced they had secured the release of 215 prisoners of war, including the commanders of the Azov Battalion defenders of the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol. They entered captivity, based on a false promise by the Russian Army of rapid exchange when Mariupol finally surrendered (Mariupol Defenders Reject Russian Demand for Surrender Setting up the Largest Siege of a City Since WWII and Mariupol Surrenders to the Russian Army After Epic 82-Day Siege). In return, Ukraine released 55 Russians. The description of them is a little cagey, indicating that some of the FSB intelligence assets responsible for the betrayal of Ukrainian defenses during the first days of the war were included. The group also included senior Russian officers and pilots. A surprise addition was Viktor Medvedchuk. Medvedchuk is a close friend of Putin; Putin is the godfather of his youngest daughter. He was involved in creating the Potemkin “People’s Republics” in Luhansk and Donetsk. Multiple sources claim that Medvedchuk was tabbed to lead the puppet, Russian-installed government that was to have replaced Zelensky’s administration. Instead, he was arrested by the Ukrainian secret service, the SBU, after he fled house arrest.
Captured Russophile and Putin BFF Viktor Medvedchuk asks to be exchanged for Ukrainian prisoners.
pic.twitter.com/0QGWTZvUJQ— Dr. Ian Garner (@irgarner) April 18, 2022
In return, Ukraine handed over more than 50 Russian troops, including pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, to the Russian side.
pic.twitter.com/MOsbizRZP9— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 21, 2022
The leaders of the Azov Battalion will be interned in Turkey until the cessation of hostilities.
The release of a large number of Azov prisoners is surprising as Putin and his lackeys in the West have reviled an effective Ukrainian nationalist fighting unit as “Nazis.” As late as the eve of the Ukrainian offensive, Russian collaborators were busily converting the Philharmonic Hall in Mariupol into a courtroom for the public trial of the Azovstal steel works defenders.
In occupied #Mariupol, Rashists are preparing to lynch Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The invaders are going to use the Philharmonic Hall as a "court" building, and the prisoners will be kept in medieval cages. pic.twitter.com/9ja3NR2Mwz
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) August 12, 2022
😡 Russians prepare for a "tribunal" against Ukrainian defenders. To do this, they mount cages on the stage of Mariupol Chamber Philharmonic and hold a show trial over the Ukrainian war prisoners – the Mariupol City Council.
pic.twitter.com/n308oNxY4E— Toronto Television / Телебачення Торонто (@tvtoront) August 8, 2022
In addition, ten foreign fighters were released at about the same time to the custody of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. There were five Brits, two Americans, one Moroccan, one Swede, and one Croat. Three of these men had been sentenced to death by a kangaroo court in Luhansk. They are being repatriated now.
…Ilya Samoilenko, photographer Dmytro Kozatskyi, Moroccan Saadoub Brahim, Britons Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin, all 3 previously sentenced to death, Americans Alex Drueke and Andy Huynh, 215 total now free from Russian captivity!#Azovstaldefenders #Mariupol #SlavaUkraini 🇺🇦💙💛 pic.twitter.com/rTBe3rsOKv
— Ukraine Aid Operations 🇺🇦 (@UkraineAidOps) September 22, 2022
What’s happening here?
On the same day that Vladimir Putin delivered a speech that seemed detached from objective reality and threatened to nuke everybody and their brother, 215 Ukrainian prisoners were released, nearly simultaneously, in two different locations. They weren’t just any prisoners. They were foreign volunteers and battle-hardened defenders of Azovstal, including some of their most well-known, one might say notorious, commanders. Three of the foreign volunteers were under sentence of death. In return, Putin got 55 prisoners, including one of his cronies, who Putin’s nationalist supporters loathe.
There is obviously some linkage between the two events. There is probably some linkage between this swap and events yet to come. I’m just not bright enough to connect the dots yet.
That is not a favorable Exchange Rate for Vlad.
You know why. So much for the stories of Russians surrendering in droves.
i read/heard 215/200 a few hours ago
This article is what you get when thr false narrative and actions on the ground don’t match and you’re no capable of self reflection. Also what makes the courts in Lughansk “Kangaroo Courts”? How many U.S courts does the author currently Deen to be Kangaroo courts?
Maybe Putin just has 4X times more Ukrainian prisoners than Ukraine has Russian prisoners?
So, Putin is releasing 4X times more prisoners?
Curiously, Viktor Medvedchuk is in handcuffs, which I believe violates the Geneva Convention for POWs.
Only an bunch of idiots would elect to fight to destroy Russia and protect Pacific allies against China at the same time. And freeze to death in the winter.
The western globalist juggernaut is insane.
It was all to get Medvedchuk. Russian cannon fodder itself is worthless.
Russia needs Medvedchuk like fish needs bicycle. He is a part of the problem. I think Ukraine insisted on trading him for PR reason, and to test water on trading civilian hostages who are Ukrainian nationals for their PoWs. This practice was widespread in 2014.
What’s to understand. It’s the classic carrot/stick approach to negotiating. See how bad and dangerous I am/see how nice and kind I can be. Why don’t we all sit down and negotiate, so I can continue conning you out of what I want. It won’t hurt, you will hardly even notice. Besides, all my loyal well paid trolls and agents keep telling you how badly your countries are failing, how they will freeze this winter, and we are successfully at home and happy.
Actually from various reports, it appears Putin will have a hard time fielding significant numbers of his 300k new fighters. Winter is coming, roads get nasty, vehicles, if they are even available, break down, heavy winter clothes and diet are needed, more weapons will be needed and may no longer be available in quantity. Imagine swarms more soldiers wandering around with inadequate clothing, shelter, and food, feeling useless and in danger because they have no weapons. How many soldiers already deserted from the recent Ukraine push? How many vehicles and armaments were abandoned when they fled? How many more Russian retreats is Ukraine likely to motivate for the same reasons the last action appeared to succeed?
ROLFMAO! It is fun to see how the propaganda eats through the brains.
Typo. They meant 55K: from the articles I keep seeing, half of Ukraine is a POW camp of exhausted or cowardly Russians.
If the trade numbers are accurate then Putin is trying to convince his people how much Russians mean to him. He’s playing to his people, a confidence game of sort— see, I will trade anything to get our people back, trust me, I’ll do anything for you.
Not really, in terms of PR it is self-defeating, but Putin doesn’t care about PR much.
He got his asset Medvechuck back. Putin doesn’t care about his cannon fodder.
Putin is the godfather to Medvechuck’s daughter and funneled billions to him for operations in Ukraine. Medvechuck was designated to be the head of the puppet government according to Putin’s original 3-day-war plan.
Nah. If Russia really wanted Medvechuck back it’d have negotiated a swap a long time ago when it had all the leverage, was dominating the regions, and before the death penalties had been cast in stone by the DPR.
If Ukraine had done to Medvechuck what the DPR were planning to do to Azov commanders Russia would’ve dined out on it for months. It suited Russia to leave him where he was.
Fact is, Ukraine wasn’t threatening to execute Medvechuck; if anything they were planning to send him to The Hague.
What’s changed all of a sudden is, Putin is running out of people he can trust, and the LDNR figureheads have been exposed as corrupt to the core.
Smart money is on the sham referenda being a box ticking effort to see just how much actual support those guys have.
Anything less than a comprehensive win with a high turnout will give Russia a way out of the conflict: these guys played us, they don’t have the support they said they had, they lied in February, the proxies responsible for atrocities in the Donbas were brought in by Pushilin...
Maybe Putin wants to execute these 55 guys. 🤪
I can see it plausible that Russia really wanted Medvechuck and knowing that Ukrainians kept asking for a very high price, that Russia wasn’t willing to pay until now.
Getting the Azovstal defenders back is a tremendous moral boost for Ukrainians.
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