Should We Swap Two British Russian Prisoners For Medvedchuk?

[ladybirder]

https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-british-men-captured-by-moscows-forces-appear-on-state-tv-and-ask-to-be-exchanged-for-pro-russian-oligarch-12592938

What do you think?

[Hopkirk]

No

[ichkeria]

Of course not.

Medvedchuk is a prisoner of Ukraine, not the UK.
These men are plainly speaking under duress.

[Bazile]

How could we without the agreement of the Ukrainians ?

[Maydup]

It’s not our swap sadly.

[ichkeria]

Zelensky offered a swap with Ukrainians last week and Russia said no.
Now they think somehow these guys are worth more.
Personally if I was Zelensky I’d hang onto Medvedchuk. He’s a Ukrainian citizen after all :-)

[davebro]

no no NOOO!

We should not have any truck with the Ruskies whatsoever.

[youngmafbog]

Not a good idea. It's akin to a ransom and all paying those does is encourage others.

[ichkeria]

As previously observed, prisoner swaps are normal in war.
But this is not an appropriate one for reasons given

[ladybirder]

Sorry as soon as I'd posted I realised I shouldn't have put "We".

All agreed then.

[davebro]

Although these 2 gentlemen are British it seems they were living in Ukraine with Ukrainian partners & were enlisted in the Ukraine army. It's not something that the UK needs to get involved in or worry about. It's a prisoner exchange between Russia & Ukraine.
Putin can go boil his head for a cabbage!

[ichkeria]

Putin has conferred a special honour on the butchering soldiers of Bucha.

[Atheist]

Do we then let these two men suffer and perhaps die? What a choice. It's a terrible decision to have to make. We can take a hard line and refuse to encourage hostage taking for the sake of future potential victims, or take a soft/compassionate line and do our best to save them.

[davebro]

They are not hostages unless we let them be - they are prisoners of war. For Russia to murder them would be a further war crime (as though they haven't committed enough already) and that needs to me made clear to Putin and his gang.

[Gromit]

A No from me.

[ichkeria]

It’s not a terrible choice.

[Peter Pedant]

No leave it to the politicians
this eventuality cant have been unforeseen
( sozza double neg there)
this event must have been previsaged

[Peter Pedant]

// For Russia to murder them would be a further war crime..//

I imagine you do it on capture, no qq etc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhoudt_massacre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malmedy_massacre
these are german massacres 1940,1945 just in case a slow AB reader goes foo-foo

[ichkeria]

I can’t believe the Times “analysis” is that it’s not a good look for Zelensky to hold on to an opposition politician (Medvedchuk)
The man’s a traitor : politics in Ukraine doesn’t have the luxury of being like UK politics. This isn’t Boris Johnson arresting Keir Starmer For Funks Sake

[1ozzy]

So "Funk" should be blamed?

[ichkeria]

Blame AB’s goofy censorship bot

Or come up with a sensible reply