The Russian Interior Ministry has included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on its wanted list. The organization published this Saturday a profile of the president in its database in which it indicates that he is persecuted by the Kremlin “for an article of the penal code”, although it does not specify which one. Moscow has taken this step as its invasion of Ukraine has entered its third year without deposing Zelensky. Since the very beginning of the war, the Kremlin has tried to delegitimize the kyiv Government with unfounded accusations, such as being a “Nazi regime.” However, Zelensky’s formal declaration as an alleged criminal makes any negotiations to end the war even more difficult.
The Russian authorities have also searched for and captured former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, the country’s leader between 2014 and 2019, without specifying what crime he is accused of. Despite being persecuted by Moscow now and accused of committing countless crimes in Donbas in the last decade, both Poroshenko and Zelensky have been recognized as legitimate presidents of Ukraine by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, after respectively winning the last two Ukrainian presidential elections. .
The Interior Ministry’s search order applies within Russian territory — which for Moscow would include the illegally annexed Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea — and it is unlikely that Zelensky will visit the invading country in the near future. In addition, Moscow has previously blacklisted other political leaders from countries it considers “unfriendly”: Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and other senior officials from the Baltic States and Poland are also being sought and captured by the Kremlin for dismantling monuments built in their countries when they were tied to the Soviet Union.
Symbolism
The Kremlin’s decision, although apparently symbolic, could break a bridge to a negotiated end to the war. “Russia does not negotiate with those it seeks for committing crimes,” highlights one of the most popular Russian pro-war channels on Telegram among ultranationalists, TopWar. “This step is not just a formal kick to Zelensky. This means that negotiations are only possible from one base: your surrender,” the channel adds through the social network.
“Poroshenko has also been put on the wanted list. So there is definitely no [perspectiva de un] agreement [con Ucrania]”Alexánder Diúkov, member of the Russian president’s International Affairs Council, highlighted on Telegram.
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The former Ukrainian president, who has promised to run against Zelensky “once the war is over,” presents chiaroscuros in his relationship with Russia. In fact, the Ukrainian Security Service vetoed his departure from the country in December last year because it suspected that the leader of the European Solidarity party was going to meet with the president of Hungary, Viktor Orbán. The Hungarian president is Putin’s main supporter among senior officials in the European Union. On an official visit to Beijing in October 2023, Orbán met with the Russian head of state and boasted of his closeness to the Kremlin: “It is a strategy, we are very proud of it.”
In addition to his inclusion on the Russian wanted list, Zelensky’s entourage reports that he has been the victim of several assassination attempts. According to the British newspaper The Times At the beginning of the war, some 400 Russian mercenaries had the objective of infiltrating Kiev and assassinating the Ukrainian leader in the first days of fighting to replace his Government with another Moscow puppet. “We will strive to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine. And also for bringing to justice those who committed numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including citizens of Russia,” Putin declared on February 24, 2022, the day he ordered his “special military operation” against Ukraine.
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