The Kremlin has turned down Ukraine’s offer of a prisoner exchange for Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in Ukraine, the oligarch and opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk, arrested on Tuesday in what was described as a “lightning-fast and dangerous” operation.
The capture of Medvedchuk, one of Ukraine’s richest men, who escaped house arrest on treason charges days after the Russian invasion, was first announced by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who posted a picture of the detainee on social media, dishevelled, in handcuffs and dressed in army fatigues with a Ukrainian flag patch.
