Russian Intelligence (FSBex-KGB) demanded the arrest of two Ukrainian ministers, a Moscow court told AFP on Tuesday, December 6, the two officials being accused, according to Russian media, of having violated the territorial integrity of the Russia.
«FSB investigators asked (…) to order in absentia the arrest of the Minister for the Reintegration of Territories not under the control of Ukraine, Irina Vereshchuk, and the Deputy Minister of foreignEmine Djaparova, said the Lefortovo court in Moscow.
Symbolic scope
This request for arrest in absentia has above all a symbolic dimension. The court would 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 the territorial integrity of Russia.
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Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014, then claimed in September 2022 the annexation of four other regions of Ukraine that she does not fully control. Ukrainian officials, despite the fighting, are moving across Ukraine, including the four regions that Moscow has claimed since late September.
Irina Verchchuk, for example, recently visited Kherson, capital of the eponymous southern region that Ukrainian forces took over in November, inflicting a new setback on Russia. Emine Djaparova is a Crimean Tatar, and as such, as number two in Ukrainian diplomacy, promotes the end of the Russian occupation of this Ukrainian peninsula.
The international community has overwhelmingly rejected Russian claims and denounced its offensive against Ukraine. Even Moscow’s allies call for respect for Ukrainian territorial integrity.