The Russian Interior Ministry put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Petro Poroshenko, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and various NATO officials on a wanted list, according to Russian Media.
The current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his predecessor Petro Poroshenko were on the ministry’s list of people wanted on unspecified criminal charges. In an online statement published the same day, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry rejected reports that Zelensky had been included on the list. The Ukrainian general who holds the position of commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces from 11 February 2024, General Oleksandr Pavliuk, also made the list.
In addition, officials and lawmakers from Ukraine and NATO countries are also on Russia’s wanted list. Among them is Kaja Kallas, the prime minister of Estonia, a NATO and EU member, who has actively advocated for more military aid to Kyiv and stronger sanctions against Moscow.
Russian officials stated that Kallas is wanted because of Tallinn’s efforts to demolish Soviet-era monuments to Red Army soldiers in that Baltic country, a belated purge of what many see as symbols of past oppression. Russia has laws criminalising the “rehabilitation of Nazism” that include punishing the “desecration” of war memorials.
The Russian list includes ministers from Estonia and Lithuania, as well as the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which last year prepared an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges.
