The mug shot is from before the war, taken when he was still wearing a shirt and jacket, without the beard and camouflage which since February 2022 have become a symbol of his role as leader of the Ukrainian resistance. In a surprise move, Volodymyr Zelensky ended up on the Russian Interior Ministry’s ‘most wanted’ list, after an unspecified criminal case was opened against him. In the database, in fact, the Ukrainian president, Tsar Vladimir Putin’s number one enemy, is wanted under “an article” of the Russian penal code. What it is remains a mystery, while the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry dismissed the matter as yet another “proof of the desperation of the Russian state machine and propaganda, which has no other noteworthy excuses to invent to attract attention.”
According to Kiev, the only arrest warrant that is “completely real and subject to execution in 123 countries of the world” is the one issued by the International Criminal Court against Vladimir Putin on charges of war crimes. And in the Ukrainian media there is a hypothesis that the inclusion of Zelensky on the wanted list arises precisely from the desire for revenge for that international mandate, an unprecedented slap never digested by the Tsar.
In addition to Zelensky, the Russian Interior Ministry also issued an arrest order for former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and former acting defense minister and current rector of the National Defense University of Ukraine, Mikhail Koval. For them too, the contested crimes are missing, as happened in other arrest orders in recent months.
Since the beginning of the invasion, several foreign politicians and public figures have been included in Moscow’s blacklist which has tens of thousands of entries. Last year, the Russians declared the then head of the armed forces Valery Zaluzhny and the then commander of the ground forces Oleksandr Syrsky, now the head of Kiev’s military, wanted. And precisely following the arrest order issued against Putin, Rosario Aitala, the Italian judge responsible for that warrant, also ended up on the wanted list. In February, the name of Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas was added along with those of other officials from the Baltic countries. For them the motivation has been made known but it sounds draconian: “Falsification of history”.
While Russia mixes war with domestic justice, the clash continues in Ukraine, where time is running out for Zelensky who calls for “timely and adequate decisions on the air defense of Ukraine, timely supply of weapons to our soldiers”. According to the Ukrainian leader, “terrorists have carried out more than 380 attacks on our cities and regions this week alone.” One man died and five people were injured in Moscow’s attacks last day on tormented Kharkiv while Kiev’s forces continue to attack Russian border regions: five wounded in the latest raid on Belgorod.
In the meantime, horrifying reports arrive of the policies carried out by the Russians in the territories of Donbass, where even innocent newborns are victims of the war: the head of the Lugansk military administration, Artem Lysogor, announced that from next Monday mothers who give birth in hospitals of the region will have to demonstrate the Russian citizenship of at least one of the newborn’s parents so that the latter can be discharged from the hospital. A rule – underlines the American think tank ISW – which represents a clear violation of the Convention for the prevention and repression of the crime of genocide.
ANSA Agency Ukraine, Crosetto: ‘Direct intervention by the Italian military is ruled out’ – News – Ansa.it “Our position does not change: we have always said that Ukraine needed to be helped in every possible way, and we are doing so, but we have also always excluded direct intervention by our military in the conflict.” (HANDLE)Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA
