celebrity wife The main ally of Vladimir Putin in Ukraine He personally appealed to President Volodymyr Zelensky for his release from captivity – claiming on Friday that he was being beaten and “persecuted for political reasons.”

Oksana Marchenko – the former TV star who hosted “X-Factor Ukraine” – posted a live appeal on Wednesday, a day after her husband, Putin Pal Victor Medvedchuk, was detained in Kyiv for treason.

She said, speaking directly to the camera in Her plea on YouTube.

She insisted on the 67-year-old oligarch and former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party: “There is no doubt that my husband is being persecuted for political reasons, contrary to the laws of Ukraine and international law.”

On Friday, she said New appeals were made during a press conference in MoscowShe insists that her husband is a “political prisoner”.

“I have no doubt that my husband was beaten within hours after his capture,” Marchenko said at the press conference, without providing evidence.

“I am asking for help to stop the physical and psychological torture,” she said.

She said she had “unfortunately” not heard from Zelensky – and admitted she wasn’t expecting it either.

“He does not answer such questions, it is his own law,” Marchenko was quoted by Russia’s TASS news agency as saying.

Medvedchuk – Listed by Forbes Last year, the 12th person was placed in the list of the richest person in Ukraine, worth $620 million – under house arrest last May, on charges of “high treason”.

In January, the United States accused Medvedchuk of involvement in the efforts of Russian intelligence services to prepare friendly Ukrainian politicians to take control of the country with the support of the occupying forces.

According to Ukrainian police, he escaped from house arrest a few days after Putin invaded Ukraine at the end of February.

Zelensky announced his arrest on Tuesday, which showed him sad and restrained — and sparked widespread celebrations.

“It is a symbolic event, like the capture of Goebbels, a great success from a moral and political point of view,” he said Sergei Leshchenko, adviser to the Presidency of Ukraine. Referring to the head of Nazi propaganda.

According to Agence France-Presse, he claimed, “This is the man who was receiving direct instructions and resources from Putin to prepare the land for the invasion.”

Medvedchuk and the Kremlin deny that he was holding the strings for the Kyiv Kremlin.

However, he did not hide his closeness to Putin, even boasting that the warlike president is the godfather of his youngest daughter Darina.

“We have a great relationship. It has been built over many years,” Medvedchuk told AFP in 2019.

with wire