Chechen leader asks for sanctions to be lifted from his family in exchange for 20 Ukrainian PoWs

Ramzan Kadyrov, Head of the Chechen Republic, has offered to release 20 Ukrainian prisoners of war if Western sanctions placed on members of his family are lifted.

Source: Russian state-owned news agency TASS with reference to Kadyrov; RIA Novosti

Quote: "My mother, wife, daughters and nephews are not to blame. They have never participated in political games. They have never said a word. I fought, I will fight on...

Impose whatever [sanctions] you want against me, but don't touch my family, my mother. If these people’s lives are important to them, then let them exchange their soldiers for [the lifting of – ed.] sanctions."

Details: Kadyrov has allegedly handed over a list of names of prisoners of war to Scott Ritter, a former UN inspector who monitored the elimination of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

Ritter has previously promoted the Kremlin’s narrative, claiming that "the West controls Ukraine and uses it for its own purposes".

A video was shown at a meeting between Kadyrov and Ritter in which men wearing the uniform of the Armed Forces of Ukraine – supposedly Ukrainian prisoners of war – ask for the "absurd sanctions that don’t affect anything" to be lifted from Kadyrov's relatives under 18, his horses, and the planes he uses.

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