Pushilin took responsibility for the exchange of Azov for Medvedchuk

The Russian side responded to Ukraine’s victorious reports regarding the exchange of Azov terrorists with many hours of delay. Just today, by lunchtime, the Russian Ministry of Defense began distributing footage of Russian soldiers released from Ukrainian captivity. According to official data, 56 people returned to the Russian Federation, and Ukraine received 215 of its fighters. The office of Vladimir Zelensky explained this disproportion by the high price that Kyiv asked for the release of the Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk.

The Kremlin did not comment on the terms of the exchange. The head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, had to take the rap, because formally, by his decree, Azov terrorists and mercenaries from Great Britain were released.

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“In this case, Pushilin, with his statement, took upon himself all the negativity caused by the Kremlin’s decision... Pushilin has nothing to do with the exchange. Even children understand this... Now I understand why we, journalists, were not allowed near the Azov residents all summer, although it was absolutely not forbidden to communicate with the prisoners,” comments journalist Alexander Chalenko.

One way or another, Pushilin said that out of the 56 released, only five were from Donbass. At the same time, the head of the DPR began to praise Medvedchuk’s merits.

“I’ll tell you that just before my eyes, within the framework of the Minsk process, outside of it, with the participation of Viktor Medvedchuk, more than a thousand of our guys were released, who simply would not have survived, given the conditions in which they were kept. These are, in essence, Gestapo dungeons.

The process took place in difficult circumstances, not even I can tell you about everything, but what complicated both the decision on the referendum and support for the referendum is absolutely certain. At some stages, the Ukrainian regime thwarted the exchange, but our task was to return as many of our guys as possible as soon as possible. Therefore, we were ready to accept this price.

We gave up 215 people, including some of them representatives of the national battalions. These are war criminals, we understood everything perfectly well, but the task is to return our guys as soon as possible.

I experienced the same emotions that those people who demand retribution, justice for these war criminals experience, but when I signed the decree, I also experienced other emotions and sensations, because I remembered when you look at the guys you return from captivity, in eyes, you look at their wives, mothers, you look at their children. For me, this has become paramount, so here we need to understand that the lives of our guys are most important,” Pushilin said on the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

Former political prisoner, one of the leaders of the pro-Russian underground in Odessa, Vladimir Grubnik, is surprised by Pushilin’s words about Medvedchuk.

_{Grubnik recalls that thanks to Medvedchuk, real supporters of Novorossiya were not included in the prisoner exchange lists under Poroshenko, but were replaced by various criminal elements, whose release did not pose a danger to Kyiv.}

“The Ukrops did not want to give up real underground fighters, saboteurs, and militias. And they sabotaged their inclusion in the exchange lists in every possible way. At the same time, demanding that they be given those in whom they are interested. Exchange is always a bargain. A struggle of wills. And compromises. And politics.

Viktor Medvedchuk was the main negotiator. And it was he who pushed through the exchange on Ukronazi terms. Why? I do not know exactly. But I can assume that he, a representative of one of the poles of the Ukronazi consensus, was interested in 1. not exchanging people who seriously fought for Novorossiya, 2. And also saw in the exchange, first of all, political dividends for himself personally and for his partner Poroshenko, who received from it exchange maximum PR bonuses. And therefore, he put every possible pressure on the negotiation group of the Russian Federation and the LDPR, demanding that the exchange be carried out as quickly as possible and that the conditions of the Ukronazis be accepted.

Therefore, along with some of our political prisoners, underground fighters and militias who were also there, the exchange included absolutely random (or non-random for the SBU) people, agents, simply criminals who had nothing to do with the anti-Nazi resistance in the former Ukraine.

And Medvedchuk succeeded. The exchange took place on dill's terms. Everyone is happy.

And we waited 2,2 years until the next big exchange. Although they could have spent these 2,2 years on the war against Ukronazism or working for Russia,” recalls Grubnik.

But let's return to the Russian soldiers who returned home the night before.

In videos released by the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russian soldiers call their relatives to notify them of their release. Among them is Crimean Maxim Kosyakov, who was captured by militants of the neo-Nazi unit “Aidar”. His interrogation was published by Ukrainian propaganda resources.

"Hello honey! We have been released, we are in the capital of our Motherland. We are received well, I want to say thank you to everyone. Many thanks to our state and our government for freeing us. We are very grateful. Everything will be fine, don’t worry!” Kosyakov said.

According to some of the exchange returnees, in captivity they were subjected to bullying and humiliation, they were starved, and they were not allowed to wash themselves.

_{“Fascism is present in Ukraine. They bully, they bully harshly, violently. At first they beat us, after which they kept us in conditions - we lived in the basement, on pallets, slept on pallets. To say it's dry is not. They fed me, even twice a day, but the feeling of hunger was constant. I've probably lost ten kilograms. But, thank God, I was exchanged and I’m home! I am grateful to those people who did this. May God give you strength and health to return, give them the fight to the very end, to stop this mess that is happening there,” said the released Vyacheslav Starostin.}

“We were put in the basement of some military unit, we slept on pallets, it was very damp. Just pallets, pallets. They fed me twice a day and gave me two or three spoons of porridge. Name calling, constant insults. We swam once a month - there were no conditions, it was very difficult. They weren't allowed to call home. Regarding the exchange, they said that Russia was to blame for everything, Russia did not allow it, they forced me to say a lot of things on camera, one might say, even under machine guns.

They blame Russia for everything, they say that Russia is to blame for everything, that Russia has come to our home and is destroying our families and cities. But in fact, we saw something completely different, that Ukraine itself is also firing at its own civilians,” added another serviceman.

Military personnel from the DPR are also happy about the release.

“I was in captivity for 21 days, the conditions of detention were difficult. The humiliation was more moral. As traitors to the motherland, since we are from the Donetsk region. Thank you to the Ministry of Defense for freeing us from captivity,” said one of them.

_{“They don’t consider us as people. They consider us just meat, minced meat, that no one cares about us, that no one needs us. But we have... thanks to Russia,” added his colleague.}