Analysis: Putin’s ally was Russia’s ‘main guy in Ukraine’ but Kremlin has refused prisoner exchange
- Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates
He was Vladimir Putin’s best friend in Ukraine but the Kremlin says it won’t make a trade to secure his freedom.
Viktor Medvedchuk, a man often named the “dark prince” of Ukrainian politics, has been a loyal ally to Putin for two decades, leading a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine for years, even after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the beginning of the deadly war in Donbas.
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