Viktor Medvedchuk

During Nazi Germany's occupation of Ukraine, he worked for the German administration in a labor camp from April 1942 to November 1943.

The section provided enforced deportation of the local able-bodied Ukrainian youth to work in Nazi Germany.

According to his Soviet court indictment, Volodymyr Medvedchuk had "joined the counter-revolutionary organization of Ukrainian nationalists" in April 1942.

Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk (Віктор Володимирович Медведчук; born 7 August 1954), also known as Viktor Vladimirovich Medvedchuk (Виктор Владимирович Медведчук), is a former Ukrainian lawyer, business oligarch, and politician who has lived in exile in Russia since September 2022 after being handed over to Russia in a prisoner exchange.

Medvedchuk is a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician and a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Volodymyr Medvedchuk was arrested by SMERSH on 7 August 1954 and sentenced to eight years of imprisonment and four of exile in Siberia "for participation in Ukrainian nationalistic activities."

Viktor was born in Pochet, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russian SFSR.

He has claimed that his father was a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.

In the mid-1960s, the Medvedchuks returned to the Ukrainian SSR, settling in Kornyn, Zhytomyr Oblast.

In 1971, Medvedchuk graduated from high school in Borova, Fastiv Raion (Kyiv Oblast).

In November 1971, Medvedchuk found a job as sorter at the Kyiv Railroad Post office factory producing periodicals.

According to Dmytro Chobit, by the start of 1972, he was an overstaffed militsiya (the police of the Soviet Union) worker at the Motovylivka station (located in Borova).

In the summer of 1972, Medvedchuk successfully passed an entrance exam to the Law School of KSU Shevchenko (now the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv).

However he was not admitted.

On 12 September 1972, he was enrolled in the university by the Rector's order #445, based on the authorization from the Ministry of the Interior of the Ukrainian SSR.

According to Dmytro Chobot, Medvedchuk was allowed to study at the university only thanks to a special recommendation from the police.

After graduation, he tried to enroll at the Higher School of Militsiya, but was rejected due to his family history.

He graduated from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 1978 as a lawyer.

In 1979, Medvedchuk became a member of the Shevchenkivska Legal Consultation of the Kyiv City Collegiate of Attorneys.

In 1979, Medvedchuk was the lawyer for repressed poet Yuriy Lytvyn.

In his last word in court on 17 December 1979, Lytvyn described Medvedchuk's work as a lawyer: "The passivity of my lawyer Medvedchuk in defense is not due to his professional profanity, but to the instructions he received from above and his subordination: he does not dare reveal the mechanism according to which provocations were implemented against me."

In July 1995, Ukraine's military prosecutor's office reviewed the case of Volodymyr Medvedchuk and decided to rehabilitate him "In accordance with Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine of 17 April 1991 On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression in Ukraine."

From 1997 to 2002 Medvedchuk was a member of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament).

Medvedchuk served between 2002 and 2005 as chief of staff to then Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma.

He served as the chairman of the pro-Russian political organization Ukrainian Choice from 2018 to 2022.

He is an opponent of Ukraine joining the European Union.

After this he was absent from national politics until 2018.

In November 2018, Medvedchuk was elected chairman of the political council of the political party For Life, which later merged into the Opposition Platform — For Life party.

Prior to being deported from Ukraine, Medvedchuk was elected as People's Deputy of Ukraine on 29 August 2019.

In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party won 37 seats on the nationwide party list and six constituency seats.

As he placed third on the 2019 election list of Opposition Platform — For Life, Medvedchuk was elected to the Verkhovna Rada.

On 19 February 2021, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine included Medvedchuk and his wife, Oksana Marchenko, on the Ukrainian sanctions list, due to alleged financing of terrorism.

On 11 May 2021, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine accused Medvedchuk of treason and attempted looting of national resources in Crimea (which had been annexed by Russia but remains internationally recognised as Ukrainian).

Medvedchuk's house arrest started on 13 May 2021.

Medvedchuk escaped this house arrest on 28 February 2022, four days after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and went missing.

On 8 March 2022 he was removed from the post of co-chairman of Opposition Platform — For Life.

On 12 April 2022 Medvedchuk was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

On 21 September 2022, Medvedchuk (together with 55 Russian prisoners of war) was exchanged for 215 Ukrainian POWs from the Siege of Mariupol.

On 13 January 2023, the Verkhovna Rada stripped Medvedchuk of his position as a people’s deputy.

Medvedchuk's father, Volodymyr Medvedchuk, avoided being drafted into the Red Army during World War II due to his suffering from Pott disease.