Two senior Ukrainian ministers arrested ‘in absentia’ on orders of Moscow court

A Moscow court has ordered two Ukrainian ministers, Iryna Vereshchuk, and Emine Dzhaparova, to be arrested ‘in absentia’.

A court in Moscow, today, Tuesday, December 6, ordered two Ukrainian ministers to be arrested ‘in absentia’. Iryna Vereshchuk, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Emine Dzhaparova, the Deputy Foreign Minister stand accused of violating Russia’s territorial integrity.

Russia’s FSB security service had recently requested their arrest. Anastasia Romanova, a spokeswoman for Moscow’s Lefortovsky district court told AFP: “The request has been granted”. Both women have subsequently been placed on Moscow’s wanted list.

Four Ukrainian territories were annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin after so-called referendums in September. As a result, Moscow claimed the territories of Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson as theirs, although the action was not recognised by the international community.

Despite the annexations and ongoing fighting, Ukrainian ministers have continued to travel to these regions. After Ukrainian forces retook Kherson in November, Vereshchuk – the Ukrainian minister for the reintegration of the occupied territories – visited the region.

Dzhaparova has been calling for the “de-occupation of Crimea and its return to Ukraine”. Her objective is to promote issues related to the ethnic minority on the Crimean peninsula, herself being of Crimean Tatar origin. Crimea was another territory annexed by Russia back in 2014.

Upon hearing of the FSB’s request to have her arrested, she joked that Moscow had Dzhaparova quipped that Moscow had recognised “the effectiveness of my work”, as reported by insiderpaper.com.

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