Medvedchuk to handle transfer of nine Donbas war prisoners

Liudmyla Denisova, the parliamentary ombudswoman for
human rights, confirmed on Jan. 20 that the occupying forces of Donbas will transfer
to Ukraine nine war prisoners through an intermediary. It was first reported on
Jan. 17 in the mass media that this intermediary is Viktor Medvedchuk, among
the leaders of the pro-Putin Opposition Platform For Life party. Upon
Denisova’s announcement, the Trilateral Contact Group to resolve the war
announced that Medvedchuk, in cooperation with the Russian government, is
jointly trying to use the prisoners in their own political interests. It
especially criticized the plan for transferring the prisoners to Ukraine
through Belarus.

“In accordance with state procedures, these
individuals are supposed to be placed under observation and undergo complete
examination by special services upon crossing Ukraine’s border,” the Trilateral
Contact Group said on its Telegram channel. “The Kremlin and Medvedchuk are
practically placing these people under added burden, trying to remove them in
circumvention of official procedures of release based on the Trilateral Contact
Group platform. The deeply amoral attempt to use the fates of people, who were
detained on the occupied territories, with political and image goals once again
demonstrates to everyone that Medvedchuk is an individual inadequately named a
Ukrainian citizen, while Russia is incapable at this stage of upholding
elementary procedures and practices that it took upon itself.”

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Jan.
20 demanding that Russia uphold all of its agreements reached in the Normandy
Format talks. “This step by Russia is a strike against the Normandy Format and
the Trilateral Contact Group, which are conducting systemic work in ensuring
the freeing of individuals who are detained owing to the conflict. Russia’s
deliberate nullification of the OSCE’s role in releases is particularly
revealing and cynical because it’s the day of the visit to Ukraine of acting
OSCE head Ann Linde,” the statement said.

Zenon Zawada: Medvedchuk
is desperate to renew an image of a mediator between Russia and Ukraine,
despite being widely recognized as loyal to Putin. Besides this being a
publicity stunt, he is also helping the Kremlin expose the weakness of the
Zelensky administration, which has allowed this occur without any apparent
resistance. In the last year or so, it was President’s Office Head Andriy
Yermak who arranged prisoner exchanges.
It remains unclear why he is allowing Medvedchuk to assume this role (and the
positive publicity that comes with it), though the President’s Office has conceded
much else to pro-Russian forces (particularly the Prosecutor General’s Office).

We had wondered why Denisova became involved in
negotiating
prisoner exchanges in December. Now it’s apparent that she is closely
cooperating with Medvedchuk and has become the latest top official cooperating
with pro-Russian forces. A native of Russia herself, she had been among the
leaders of the Fatherland party led by Yulia Tymoshenko. It’s a troubling trend
that the human rights ombudswoman has chosen to become compromised in this way.