The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, called the information about the existence of a “black market” in the Russian Federation fake, where Ukrainian prisoners of war are purchased for their subsequent exchange for captured Chechens.

According to Kadyrov, the hero of the material was a certain Vyacheslav Levitsky, who surrendered to the Akhmat special forces in April last year and was then returned to Ukraine.

“Our guys came across Vyacheslav ten days after his colleagues abandoned him wounded. He was promptly taken to Grozny, where he was provided with all the necessary assistance. After treatment, we handed over Vyacheslav Levitsky and two other prisoners to the Ukrainian side. In return, they were able to return three Russian military personnel who are not even natives of the Chechen Republic,” said Ramzan Kadyrov.

The day before, a representative of the Ukrainian coordination headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war, Petr Yatsenko, said that the Chechen authorities were buying captured Ukrainian soldiers from Russian units for their subsequent exchange for their colleagues. As examples, he named the Ukrainian military Vyacheslav Levitsky and Sergei Potremay.