Russia indicts Ukraine’s top officials for "genocide"

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has approved an indictment accusing Ukraine’s top political and military leadership of “genocide”, the agency’s press service said. 

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the charges have been filed in absentia under Article 357 of the Russian Criminal Code. The defendants have been placed on an international wanted list, and Moscow’s Basmanny Court has ordered preventive detention in absentia, Caliber.Az reports. 

The list of accused includes current and former Ukrainian officials, among them Ukrainian Ambassador Valery Zaluzhny, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Alexander Syrsky, former President Petro Poroshenko, former Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, and former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

By Sabina Mammadli