Kadyrov proposes barter deal with Ukrainian prisoners
Published: Friday, Jan 5th 2024, 22:50
Updated At: Friday, Jan 5th 2024, 22:50
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The Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov has proposed a dubious barter deal: in return for the release of 20 Ukrainian prisoners of war, he is demanding the lifting of Western sanctions against his family. A little later on Friday, however, he presented his proposal as a provocative joke.
According to Russian media reports, Kadyrov said that Chechen soldiers had captured the Ukrainians during fighting in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. He showed a video in Grozny in which these Ukrainians allegedly also pleaded for an exchange under the conditions he had mentioned.
The Chechen leader said that the sanctions against his mother, his daughters and his horses should be lifted. "Even if there are a few more sanctions against me, we will release these people," he said. On the same day, however, Kadyrov withdrew the proposal, as reported by the Tass agency. He had mainly wanted to make fun of the USA and hear their excuses. "Of course the United States won't go for it," he said.
Kadyrov is one of the closest henchmen of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine for almost two years. Moscow therefore allows him to get away with his tyranny in his homeland and his autocratic behavior. According to the Geneva Convention, Kadyrov is not allowed to treat the Ukrainian prisoners of war as his private prisoners and is also not allowed to show them on video. He is also not authorized to negotiate.
The EU and the USA have imposed entry bans on Kadyrov and his family and frozen any assets on their territory. In the Czech Republic, a valuable horse was confiscated that is said to belong to him and disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 2023.
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