Russia puts Zelensky on wanted list

Russia has opened a criminal case against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and put him on a wanted list, the state news agency TASS reported, an announcement Ukraine dismissed as evidence of Moscow’s “desperation”.

TASS reported that the Russian Interior Ministry database showed Mr Zelensky was on a wanted list but gave no further details.

Russia has placed several foreign politicians and public figures on its wanted list, which has tens of thousands of entries.

The commander of Ukraine’s Land Forces, Oleksandr Pavliuk, and former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko also appeared in the online database today.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry noted Russian President Vladimir Putin was himself subject to arrest under an International Criminal Court warrant.

“We would like to remind you that unlike the worthless Russian announcements, an International Criminal Court warrant for the arrest of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on suspicion of war crimes is quite real, and subject to implementation in 123 countries,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It said the Russian announcement was “evidence of the desperation of the Russian state machine and propaganda, which can think of no other way to attract attention”.

Moscow has targeted Mr Zelensky since the start of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine in February 2022.

The Ukrainian president said last year he was aware of at least “five or six” assassination attempts against him that had been foiled.

Russia has issued arrest warrants for a number of Ukrainian and other European politicians since the start of the conflict with Ukraine.

Russian police in February put Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Lithuania’s culture minister and members of the previous Latvian parliament on a wanted list for destroying Soviet-era monuments.

Russia also issued an arrest warrant for the International Criminal Court prosecutor who last year prepared Putin’s war crimes warrant.

Meanwhile, three people were injured and a fire started in an office building as a result of debris downed Russian drones struck civilian targets early this morning in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, the regional governor said.

Oleh Synehubov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said a 13-year-old child and a woman were being treated in hospital. A second woman was treated at the site.

Emergency services were bringing the fire under control, he added.

The Russian defence ministry said its air defence forces shot down four US-produced long-range missiles over the Crimea peninsular, weapons known as Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) that Washington has shipped to Ukraine in recent weeks.

The ministry said later that Russian aircraft and air defence systems had downed a total of 15 ATACMS in the past week.

On Tuesday, Russian officials said Ukraine had attacked Crimea with ATACMS in an attempt to pierce Russian air defences of the annexed peninsula but that six had been shot down.

A US official said in Washington last month that the US secretly shipped long-range missiles to Ukraine in recent weeks.

The ATACMS missiles, with a range up to 300km were used for the first time in the early hours of 17 April, launched against a Russian airfield in Crimea that was about 165km from the Ukrainian front lines, the official said.

The Pentagon initially opposed the long-range missile deployment, concerned that taking the missiles from the American stockpile would hurt US military readiness.

There were also concerns that Ukraine would use them to attack targets deep inside Russia, a step which could lead to an escalation of the war towards a direct confrontation between Russia and the United States.

Separately, the Russian defence ministry said today that in the last week its forces had destroyed a military train carrying equipment and arms produced in the West and supplied to Ukraine by NATO.

The scale of the damage, exact date and location were not disclosed.

Reuters is not immediately able to corroborate battlefield accounts from either side.