Russia included the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, on its list of wanted people, the Russian state press reported this Saturday, mentioning information from the Ministry of the Interior database. The president is wanted “under an article of the penal code,” explained a brief text, which says nothing more about the nature of these accusations.
On Saturday afternoon, both Zelensky and his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko, were on the ministry’s list of people wanted for unspecified criminal charges. The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, General Oleksandr Pavlyuk, was also on the list.
Russian officials did not immediately clarify the allegations against either man. Mediazona, an independent Russian media outlet, said on Saturday that both Zelensky and Poroshenko had been on the list since at least late February.
In an online statement published that same day, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry dismissed reports of Zelensky’s inclusion as evidence of “the desperation of the Russian state machinery and propaganda.”
According to the statement from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, “Russian information about the alleged inclusion of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the list of people wanted by the Russian Ministry of the Interior demonstrates the desperation of the Russian state and propaganda machinery, which does not knows what else to invent to get attention.
“We would like to remind everyone that, unlike the useless Russian announcements, the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against the Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, for war crimes is real and enforceable in 123 countries,” he adds.
Names on the Russia list
The list of people wanted by Russia also includes dozens of officials and legislators from Ukraine and NATO countries. Among them is Kaja Kallas, prime minister of NATO and EU member Estonia, who has advocated increasing military aid to kyiv and toughening sanctions against Moscow.
In February, Russian officials said Kallas was wanted over Tallinn’s attempts to remove Soviet-era monuments to Red Army soldiers in the Baltic nation, in a belated purge of what many see as symbols of past oppression.
Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, also NATO members, have torn down monuments that are seen as an unwanted legacy of the Soviet occupation of those countries.
Russia has laws that criminalize “rehabilitation of Nazism” and include punishment for “desecration” of war memorials.
Also on Russia’s list are ministers from Estonia and Lithuania, as well as the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) who last year prepared an arrest warrant against Putin for war crimes.
Moscow has also accused the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, of what it considers “terrorist” activities, including Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian infrastructure.
