Report: Russia received sign of life from hostage Sasha Trufanov some 10 days ago

Russia’s ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov told Israeli political officials yesterday that Moscow had received a sign of life from hostage Sasha Trufanov ten days ago, Channel 12 news reports.

The report says that Trufanov’s mother Lena had been updated on the matter.

According to the report, Viktorov told officials that Moscow has channels for receiving updates on the two hostages with Russian citizenship, Trufanov and Maxim Harkin.

The outlet notes that last month, the Hamas terror group said Trufanov and Herkin, will be among the first to be released during an eventual hostage deal, and that Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer reportedly visited Moscow last week.

Earlier today, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group released a video of Trufanov.

It is unclear when the clip was filmed, but was the third video the terror group has released of Trufanov.

Trufanov was taken hostage along with three members of his family — grandmother Irena Tati, mother Yelena (Lena) Trufanova and his girlfriend Sapir Cohen — from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7 Hamas massacre in the Gaza border town.

Trufanova and Tati were released by Hamas on November 29 at the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Cohen was released on November 30 as part of a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Sasha Trufanov is an engineer employed at Annapurna Labs, an Israeli microelectronics company purchased by Amazon.