Russian intelligence demands arrest of two Ukrainian ministers

The Kremlin is attacking Ukrainian diplomacy. Russian intelligence (FSB, ex-KGB) has demanded the arrest of two Ukrainian ministers, a Moscow court said on Tuesday. According to Russian media reports, the two officials are accused of violating Russia’s territorial integrity by traveling to annexed Ukrainian territories in September.

“FSB investigators asked (…) to issue a warrant in absentia for the arrest in absentia of the Minister for Reintegration of Territories Not Controlled by Ukraine, Irina Vereshchuk, and Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova,” the Lefortovo Court of Moscow said.

The court did not specify the reason given by the Russian security services, but according to the state news agency TASS, the two ministers are accused of violating Russia’s territorial integrity. Ukrainian officials, despite the fighting, are moving around Ukraine, including four regions illegally annexed by Moscow at the end of September.

Symbolic judgment

Irina Vereshchuk, for example, recently visited Kherson, the capital of the southern region of the same name, which Ukrainian troops captured in November, dealing another blow to Russia. On the other hand, we do not know where Emine Dzhaparova has gone, but the latter, as a Crimean Tatar, regularly advocates for an end to the Russian occupation of this Ukrainian peninsula.

This request by the Moscow court for arrest in absentia is primarily symbolic, since Emine Dzhaparova and Irina Vereshchuk had to leave or be forcibly taken to Russia for trial.

Moscow annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014, and then in September 2022 announced the annexation of four other regions of Ukraine, which it does not fully control. The international community overwhelmingly rejected Russia’s claims and condemned its offensive against Ukraine. Even states that have been ambivalent about Moscow since February called for respect for Ukraine’s territorial integrity.