Hamas is ready to release two hostages with Russian citizenship as a matter of priority, but as part of an exchange deal with Israel, Musa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of the Hamas politburo, told RIA Novosti.
The day before, Marzuk met in Moscow with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.
"We discussed another topic. The Russian side had previously asked for the release of citizens with Russian citizenship who are held by Hamas. They asked to release four of them, two of them were civilians, whom we released free of charge, the remaining two are Israeli military," Marzuk said.
According to him, now two Russian citizens are with Hamas in Gaza, one of them is Alexander Trufanov, who has Israeli and Russian citizenship.
"He is with the Islamic Jihad*. He is an army officer, was taken during the fighting. And, of course, he will be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners who are on Israeli territory," Marzuk said.
He added that the second of the remaining Russian citizens of Hamas is Maxim Harkin.
"Maxim Harkin is a Ukrainian, at the moment when he was captured, he was not a citizen of Russia. His family came to Russia and got Russian citizenship for him, so that Russia would help them free him. But he is not a civilian, he is a military man, he served in the Israeli army," said the deputy head of the Hamas politburo.
"As a gesture of respect to our Russian colleagues, we will prioritize them at the time of the exchange in order to release them first," Marzuk concluded.
*Terrorist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation
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