SICK SWAP
Wife of Putin pal seized in Ukraine begs for husband to be released in swap for hero Brit fighter captured by Russians
THE wife of a pal of Vladimir Putin arrested in Ukraine has called for him to be swapped with a hero Brit fighter captured by the Russians.
Viktor Medvedchuk, 67, was snatched in a raid by spooks from Ukraine's security service, while 28-year-old Aidan Aslin was fighting in the besieged city of Mariupol.
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Brave Aidan surrendered after his unit ran out of food and ammunition in the city and was paraded on Russian TV on Thursday with a gash across his forehead and an eye half-closed.
Medvedchuk’s wife Oxana Marchenko has now made a video address calling for her husband and Aidan to be swapped.
In the video she also mentions another Brit, Shaun Pinner, though there has be no confirmation he has also been captured by the Russians.
"I, Oxana Marchenko, spouse of opposition politician, people’s deputy of Ukraine Viktor Medvedchyuk, address the relatives of captured citizens of Great Britain Aiden Aslin and of Shaun Pinner," she says.
“It is in your power to ask the PM of your country Boris Johnson to influence Ukrainian leadership and to achieve Aiden’s and Shaun’s release by their exchange for….my husband Viktor Medvedchyuk."
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Marchenko is a former TV star who hosted 'X-Factor Ukraine' and has also appealed to Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky for his release.
Medvedchuk has described as a “personal friend” to Putin and is godfather to his daughter while the pair have even holidayed together.
As leader of the country’s main pro-Moscow party in Ukraine - the Opposition Platform For Life - he was the Kremlin’s most trusted and influential lieutenant in Ukraine.
Medvedchuk had been placed under house arrest last year to face treason and terrorism financing charges, which he denies.
But he escaped a few days after the Russians launched their full scale invasion of Ukraine.
Investigators who went to Medvedchuk’s house found a replica of a vintage Pullman railway carriage, opulently furnished with gross gold fittings, standing at a mock railway station.
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The tasteless display was all hidden under a tarpaulin.
While his $200m, 305ft yacht, The Royal Romance, was seized in the Croatian port of Rijeka last month during a wave of sanctions - which Medvedchuk himself had been subjected to by the US in January.
Aiden, originally of Newark-on-Trent, Notts, laid down his arms with Ukraine's 36th Marines after defending the port city during a six-week siege.
At the beginning of March, it was reported that former Royal Anglian Regiment soldier Shaun, 48, was fighting with the Ukrainians.
His family have begged the government to do all it can to get him home.
There are fears Aiden will now be used by tinpot tyrant Vladimir Putin as a propaganda tool.
It has already been claimed that Aiden — who was due to marry his Ukrainian fiance last month — was working for "Western intelligence".
His interrogator on Rossiya 1, military reporter Andrey Rudenko, told viewers: "Aiden Aslin is a subject of Great Britain.
"He is an English mercenary and fought on the side of the Nazis in Ukraine."
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In a chilling warning Rudenklo said: "I am sure that he will be able to shed light on the actions of Western intelligence agencies in Ukraine."
The Foreign and Commonwealth office has been approached for comment/
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