By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Russia on Saturday added the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky to its list of wanted criminals, a development dismissed by Kyiv as a sign of Moscow’s “desperation”.
Zelensky’s name was sighted on the Russian interior ministry’s “wanted” list, an online database of alleged criminals wanted by the Russian authorities.
The Ukrainian leader was wanted “under an article of the criminal code”, the list noted but no further details were provided.
Russian officials were yet to state why Zelensky had been added to the list.
Others who appeared on the online database include the commander of Ukraine’s Land Forces, Oleksandr Pavliuk, and former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko.
In response however, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the decision was a sign of “the desperation of the Russian state machine and propaganda, which are at a loss for what else to invent to garner attention”.
Zelensky has been a target for Russia since the war between both countries broke out February 2022.
The Ukrainian leader had last year claimed he was aware of at least “five or six” assassination attempts against him that had been foiled.
Heritage Times reports that Putin had in an address urged the Ukrainian army to overthrow Zelensky, just the day after sending troops into Ukraine
Russia has placed several foreign politicians and public figures on its wanted list, which has tens of thousands of entries.
In February, Moscow said it was seeking Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas for what the Kremlin said was the “desecration of historical memory” over the Baltic country’s move to destroy Soviet era monuments.
Last year, International Criminal Court issued arrest warrant on Putin where it said there were “reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility” for the abductions of Ukrainian children, and “for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (and) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts”.
In response, Moscow issued an arrest warrant on ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, who prepared arrest warrant on Putin.
He was also added on the wanted list of Russia’s interior ministry.
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