The Russian Interior Ministry has included the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, on the list of people under a search and arrest warrant.
As published by the Ministry in its database, Zelensky, born in 1978, a native of the city of Krivoi Rog, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine, is wanted “under an “unspecified” article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “, reported this Saturday the Russian agency Interfax.
The inclusion of Zelensky on the list follows the trend practiced by the Russian authorities against officials of the Ukrainian Government since practically the beginning of the Ukrainian war. The day before, for example, the head of the National Security and Defense Council, Alexander Litvinenko, appeared on the list.
In fact, minutes after the announcement about Zelensky, the Russian Ministry of the Interior has also included former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko on its list, known for his proximity to the European Union and NATO during his mandate to the point of signing an amendment in 2019 constitutional to facilitate efforts to incorporate the country into both blocs.
Also included this Saturday on the list was the commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Alexander Pavlyuk, who is wanted under a criminal article, also not specified.
In response, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has described Zelensky’s inclusion as an act of “desperation” by Russia’s “state propaganda machine” that “no longer knows what else to invent to get attention.”
Ukraine recalls that “unlike the despicable Russian announcements”, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant against the “dictator” Vladimir Putin “that is very real and is applicable in 123 countries.”
In the arrest warrant from March last year, the ICC accuses Putin of being responsible for the kidnapping and deportation of children and minors from Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine to Russia. Moscow refers to this situation as evacuations.