The President of the Russian Federation, Volodymyr Putin, is “the main target of war criminals”, and the task of the Ukrainian special services is to detain him and bring him before the International Criminal Court (ICC) for responsibility for crimes of aggression against Ukraine. and “not his physical destruction,” Andrii Yusov, the spokesman for the Main Directorate of Intelligence under the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (MUD), said on Thursday, as quoted by the Ukrainian news agency Unian, Agerpres reports.

His statement came after the German newspaper Die Welt published an interview with GUR deputy director Vadym Skibytsky, in which he said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and the boss of Wagner’s mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, were at the top. a list of people whom Ukrainian special services want to eliminate.

“I understand that there are people from the mass media who collect and prepare the most “hot” facts, and that’s normal, but in the original (Die Welt newspaper material) it was somewhat different. Yes, indeed, Putin is obviously a war criminal, as is his entire clique. And he really is the No. 1 target for his detention and delivery to the ISS,” the GUR spokesman emphasized.

“The Hague is inevitable for Putin”

Ukraine is a civilized state that acts in civilized ways, Andrii Yusov said.

“Let’s now make every effort to physically destroy a man like Putin – we can talk about it all right, but we have to ask ourselves if it’s wise to do it. The need to detain him as a war criminal, as well as his accomplices and hand them over to an international tribunal, is, of course, a matter of fair punishment, which will be carried out and will be carried out, Yusov explained.

“The Hague is inevitable for Putin, and in this situation it is even better that he appear before the ISS alive,” the Ukrainian official added.

The list is headed by Putin, “the one who coordinates and decides”

In an interview with Die Welt, as reported by the EFE agency, Skibitsky said that Putin heads the list, which includes Russian officials who are directly involved in the coordination of military operations in Ukraine.

He added that it is Putin who is “coordinating and deciding” what is happening in the military campaign he launched in February 2022 against a neighboring state that he denies the right to exist.

Both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Western leaders have called Putin a “war criminal” on whose name the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant, considering him “allegedly responsible” for the deportation of Ukrainian children from the territories occupied by Russian troops to Ukraine.

The Kremlin’s reaction: “Therefore, the military special operation is more than justified and necessary”

Russia’s reaction did not take long, Kremlin spokesman Dmytro Peskov called Ukraine a “terrorist regime.” “The terrorist regime talks about its terrorist tendencies,” Peskov said. Therefore, “military special operation is more than justified, more than necessary. And it must be brought to an end with the achievement of all the set goals,” explained the spokesman of President Vladimir Putin.

In late February 2022, Vladimir Putin launched a military campaign in Ukraine, the bloodiest aggression in Europe since World War II, under the pretext of “denazification” and “demilitarization” of Ukraine. “Denazification” means nothing more than the physical destruction of the current pro-Western leaders in Kyiv, say analysts outside Russia and propagandists in Moscow. Vladimir Putin has repeatedly denied the right to exist of the Ukrainian people, which he publicly calls fraternal to the Russian people.

In fact, according to the former editor-in-chief of the radio station “Echo of Moscow” Oleksiy Venediktov, declared a “foreign agent”, Putin has done nothing but enmity between the two Slavic peoples for generations to come, and about 44 million Russians have family. relations with Ukraine.

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