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

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.

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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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