The head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak said that the exchange of Putin's godfather Viktor Medvedchuk was arranged by Ukrainian intelligence.

President Zelensky agreed to this. 

Yermak said this in an interview with Natalia Moseichuk. 

"The exchange of Medvedchuk was decided at the level of intelligence. The only channel of communication today is at the level of intelligence. Zelensky gave the go-ahead for the exchange. Everything related to the exchange - here Budanov is in contact with the president. I know what is happening and so on. We returned 215 people and I think that we did not cheap out," said the head of the President's Office. 

Yermak said that he did not communicate with Medvedchuk after his arrest.

The SBU spoke with the traitor, to which he informed everything that was needed. 

Exchange of Medvedchuk: what is known 

On September 21, an exchange of prisoners took place on the territory of several countries: Poland, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and on the border between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.

200 Ukrainian heroes 

, and the commanders of "Azovstal" - for 55 occupiers.

Head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov, Medvedchuk was involved in the preparation of a full-scale invasion of Russia on the territory of Ukraine. 

"Medvedchuk had a certain influence during the preparation for the active phase, which began on February 24. He certainly had to prepare. Including the funds that were supposed to pay people who would be Gauleiter passed through him. Through him, there were attempts to finance certain, as Russia believed , the resistance movement inside Ukraine. As practice has shown, these funds were simply embezzled," said the head of military intelligence. 

Read also:

• Before the war, Putin refused to meet with Zelensky and called him an "assistant of Nazism" - NYT

• The FBI searched Medvedchuk's yacht - mass media

• Oksana Marchenko and Viktor Medvedchuk were spotted in occupied Crimea