RUSSIA has slapped Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on its wanted list, Russian state media reported on Saturday.

Both President Zelensky and his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko, featured on the Russian Interior ministry’s list of people wanted on unspecified criminal charges. 

Mr Poroshenko served as Ukrainian president from 2014 to 2019.

The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, General Oleksandr Pavlyuk, also appears on the list.

Russian officials did not immediately clarify the allegations against any of them. Together with the inclusion of other non-Russian citizens from former Soviet states, the list implies an assertion of extraterritorial authority over other countries similar to that often claimed by the US.

In an online statement published that same day, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry dismissed President Zelensky’s inclusion as evidence of “the desperation of the Russian state machine and propaganda.”

Russia’s wanted list also includes scores of officials and lawmakers from Ukraine and Nato countries. 

Amongst them is Kaja Kallas, the prime minister of Nato and European Union member Estonia — another ex-Soviet republic — who has advocated increased military aid to Kiev and stronger sanctions against Moscow.

Russian officials in February said that Mr Kallas is wanted because of Tallinn’s efforts to remove Soviet-era monuments to Red Army soldiers.

Fellow Nato members Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have also pulled down monuments to the contribution the Red Army played in liberating those countries. 

Russia has laws criminalising the “rehabilitation of Nazism” that include punishing the “desecration” of war memorials.

Also on Russia’s list are cabinet ministers from Estonia and Lithuania, as well as the International Criminal Court prosecutor who last year prepared a warrant for President Vladimir Putin’s arrest on war crimes charges. 

Moscow has also charged the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, with what it deems terrorist activities, including Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian infrastructure.

Moscow named “de-Nazification, demilitarisation and de-communisation” as its three war goals when it invaded Ukraine in 2022.

The claim of “de-Nazification” refers to the influence of neonazi groups on the Ukrainian government and in the armed forces and demilitarisation to ending its association with Nato. De-communisation is usually interpreted as meaning the redrawing of its borders, which were defined in Soviet times.