Photo: Ukrainian presidential press relations via Agence France-Presse Volodymyr Zelensky is particularly targeted by Russian officials. The day after the launch of his assault, President Vladimir Putin called on the Ukrainian army to overthrow him.
France Media Agency in Moscow
Published at 0:00
- Europe
Russia has launched a wanted notice against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, without making public its motive, according to a notice visible on Saturday on the website of the Ministry of the Interior, an announcement that kyiv deemed “worthless”.< /p>
The leader is wanted “under an article of the Penal Code”, we can read in this short text, which says nothing else about the nature of these accusations .
Since February 2022, Russia has been leading an offensive against Ukraine, which it presents in particular as a fight against a “Nazi” power.
Volodymyr Zelensky is particularly targeted by Russian officials. The day after launching his assault, President Vladimir Putin called on the Ukrainian army to overthrow him.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said the wanted poster against Mr. Zelensky demonstrated the “desperation of the Russian propaganda and state machine, which no longer knows what to invent to attract attention.”
The ministry recalled that Vladimir Putin was himself the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the alleged “deportation” to Russia of thousands of Ukrainian children.
This mandate is “real”, contrary to “worthless Russian announcements”, estimated Ukrainian diplomacy.
Wanted notices were also issued against the commander of Kiev's ground forces, Oleksandr Pavlyuk, and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, according to the Russian database.
The list of people wanted by Russia is very extensive and includes Russian or foreign personalities, notably Ukrainians.
In February, the name of Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas was added at the same time as those of other officials from the Baltic countries.
The Kremlin had invoked, to justify this decision, the opposing vision of History that Moscow and these States have.
The Baltic States, which fear the military ambitions of the Kremlin, consider that the USSR occupied them, while Moscow sees itself as a liberator and judges any other approach as a “falsification of history”, a crime in Russia.