Viktor Medvedchuk, during an interview with the Kremlin-affiliated Russian media outlet RIA-Novosti, in Moscow, on February 16, 2024. KRISTINA KORMILITSYNA/SPU/SIPA
"Operation complete. Congratulations to Ukraine's special services. Details to follow. Slava Ukraïni!"
Just below these words by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a screenshot showed a man slumped in a chair. Cheeks hollow, expression vacant, hair disheveled, the man wore a Ukrainian military jacket and was handcuffed. When, on April 12, 2022, the president posted this photo on social media, he didn't even need to write the name of the fugitive who had tried to escape the country in a soldier's uniform. The entire country recognized him. It was Viktor Medvedchuk, or, as he's known in Ukraine, "The Traitor."
On February 24, 2022, the day Russia invaded Ukraine, Vladimir Putin had a different image in mind; not Medvedchuk detained and defeated, but rather of him seated upright in Zelensky's office on Bankova Street in Kyiv. According to Moscow's plans, capturing the Ukrainian capital was supposed to take just three days. Putin's next step was simple: oust the current president and install his friend and oligarch, at the time a member of the Ukrainian parliament, in his stead. Zelensky later recounted the series of events at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2025: "At the dawn of the invasion, I received an ultimatum from Russia forcing me to step down. Medvedchuk was supposed to replace me."
