Ukraine declares Transnistria's "foreign minister" wanted after he failed to attend questioning by Ukraine's Security Service

Ukrainska Pravda
·1 min read
Transnistria's "Foreign Minister" Vitalii Ihnatiev. Photo: website of Transnistria's "Foreign Ministry"
Transnistria's "Foreign Minister" Vitalii Ihnatiev. Photo: website of Transnistria's "Foreign Ministry"

Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs has put Vitalii Ihnatiev, a citizen of Ukraine and Transnistria's "foreign minister", on the wanted list [Transnistria is a breakaway state internationally recognised as part of Moldova – ed.].

Source: European Pravda, citing an entry in the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's wanted database

Details: The record indicates that Ihnatiev is wanted by the Vinnytsia Oblast Department of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), which summoned him for questioning earlier this year.

No measure of restraint was applied to Ihnatiev, who, Ukraine believes, is in Tiraspol.

Background:

  • On 9 January, the official governmental newspaper of Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers reported that Transnistria’s "foreign minister" was summoned to the SSU office to "be served with a written notice of suspicion for the crimes committed".

  • Ihnatiev was charged under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: "public calls for changing the boundaries of the territory or state border of Ukraine" and "carrying out information activities in cooperation with the aggressor state and its occupying administration".

  • Vitalii Ihnatiev is a native and citizen of Ukraine who was a member of the Joint Control Commission on the part of Transnistria in 2012-2015, and since 2016 has been heading the "Foreign Ministry" of the breakaway state.

  • Investigative journalists have previously pointed out that the sham leadership of Transnistria holds Ukrainian citizenship, which they actively used to enter Ukraine at least until Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

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