Of the 215 prisoners who were rescued from Russian captivity, 200 defenders were directly exchanged for Viktor Medvedchuk. Acting The head of the SBU, Vasyl Malyuk, personally met the released Ukrainians in the Chernihiv region during the exchange procedure, which was organized under the leadership of the Office of the President.
"Medvedchuk is not just Putin's best man, but a high-quality state traitor documented by us. His guilt is fully recorded in the relevant materials collected by the SBU. In addition, while working on the Medvedchuk case, we neutralized more than one agent network, detained many state traitors, and obtained a large amount of important information that we use in counterintelligence activities. And now, thanks to the exchange, we were able to extract from Russian captivity the heroes who are waiting for them at home," said Vasyl Malyuk.
He emphasized that the exchange of Viktor Medvedchuk for Ukrainian defenders does not prevent consideration of his cases in court: "This applies to decision-making, sentencing, and confiscation of seized property. After all, in such a case, the procedure of a special trial is applied in the absence of the accused".
Vasyl Malyuk added that the exchange became possible thanks to changes to the current legislation, which regulated the relevant legal mechanisms.
So, to save our defenders' lives and health, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War decided to carry out the exchange. Medvedchuk himself also gave his consent to this. So the court granted the request of the prosecutor.
Acting The head of the SBU noted that despite the difficult negotiations, the exchange was successful. After all, Ukraine returns much more defenders than it gives out.
"The efforts of many people from various departments over many months have been crowned with success. And this is a great merit of the Coordination Headquarters. Thank you to everyone who participated in this exchange, and especially to the Head of State Volodymyr Zelensky, the head of the Office of President Andriy Yermak," emphasized Vasyl Malyuk.
He noted the important role of each state body involved in the return of prisoners: the Office of the President, the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Reintegration, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Emergency Service, and others.
Acting The head of the SBU reminded that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, a total of 20 such releases took place, resulting in which it was possible to return 802 prisoners from captivity.
We will remind that Viktor Medvedchuk was previously informed of suspicion under part 1 of Art. 111 (treason), Part 1 of Art. 258-3 (supporting a terrorist organization) and Part 1 of Art. 438 (looting of national values) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
The investigation established that Medvedchuk, acting in a prior conspiracy with the then President of Ukraine, the Minister of Energy and Coal Industry, and other persons, agreed with the members of the L/DPR terrorist organizations and organized their supply of coal from the temporarily occupied territories, beginning in November 2014. Thus, he contributed to the financing of terrorists.
Comprehensive evidence was collected (testimony of witnesses, telephone conversations, expert opinions, material evidence) of the involvement and guilt of V. Medvedchuk and other suspects in severe crimes against Ukraine.
In another criminal proceeding, it was established that Medvedchuk passed on information about the location of the military unit of the HUR of the Ministry of Defense, its covert combat training, personnel, etc., to representatives of the Russian special services. This harmed Ukraine's defense capabilities.
In addition, in November 2020, Viktor Medvedchuk took an active part in the development of the anti-Ukrainian project "Promin (Ray)", the task of which was to strengthen the influence of the special services of the aggressor country on the political situation in Ukraine.
Medvedchuk also committed several illegal actions against Ukraine in the interests of the Russian Federation, aimed at plundering national values ​​(oil and gas) worth more than UAH 38 billion in the temporarily occupied Crimea.
It should be noted that currently, the property of Medvedchuk and his wife has been seized. In particular, we are talking about:
- 30 land plots with an area of ​​more than 144 hectares;
- 72 objects of real estate (houses, apartments, garages, buildings);
- 2 yachts, the value of one of which is about 200 million euros;
- 24 vehicles;
- 1 railway car;
- corporate rights of 25 enterprises;
- 316 objects: paintings, watches, vases, etc.
