(MENAFN) Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Turkey to facilitate the release of a specific person from Ukrainian detention, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, commenting on a prisoner exchange arranged by Turkey.
Erdogan, the Turkish president, stated amid speaking to reporters, “One of the names was repeated many times by Mr. Putin. We have already sent this person to Russia.”
Turkey acted as a go-between for a prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine earlier this week. Some of the Ukrainian fighters released by Russia will remain in Turkey as "guests," according to Erdogan.
While Erdogan did not name the person transferred to Russia, whose fate he stated was of great interest to Putin, some media sources assumed that he was talking to Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk.
According to officials in Kiev and the Russia-allied Donetsk People's Republic, the lawmaker was granted release as part of the deal (DPR).
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky stated that his country had provided 200 fighters for the individual, whom he referred to as a "fan of Russia." He also indicated that five senior members of the Azov battalion, a unit with openly neo-Nazi ideology among its members, will remain in Turkey.
Denis Pushilin, the DPR's leader, credited Medvedchuk with mediating many prisoner exchanges between DPR militia and Kiev in the past, which explains why the Ukrainian national was included in this week's trade.
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