Russia places American serving in Ukraine's military on wanted list

An American journalist-turned-spokesperson for the Ukraine Armed Forces has been placed on a Kremlin criminal "wanted" list.

Sarah Ashton-Cirillo arrived in Ukraine in March 2022 about one month after Russia's invasion of its Eastern European neighbor to cover the war as a reporter. Dubbed the first openly transgender war correspondent, she ultimately scrapped her journalism role to enlist in the Ukraine Armed Forces and worked as a combat medic prior to rising to the rank of so-called spokesperson of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Newsweek reports.

She has been placed in Russia's criminal "wanted" database, part of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, according to Russian state-sponsored media outlet Tass. The alleged offense for which she is wanted is not specified.

Ukraine's former territorial defense force spokesperson, Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, reacts during an interview in Kyiv on September 7, 2023, amid the war against Russia. Russian media outlets reported that she has been placed in a Kremlin... More ROMAN PILIPEY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

"These sealed and fabricated charges against me epitomize [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's Russia," Ashton-Cirillo told Newsweek via Signal. "The Kremlin is a fabricated regime carrying out a genocidal war against Ukraine based on ever changing, nonsensical reasons for the singular goal of propping up Putin's failed terrorist state. When they finally announce what I'm wanted for, it would be laughable if not so pathetic."

In February, the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation (Rosfinmonitoring) added her to a list of extremists and terrorists.

Newsweek reached out to Russian and Ukrainian officials via email for comment.

Tass reported that the placing of Ashton-Cirillo into the database stems from correspondence in October 2023, when she spoke in a published video about unnamed Russian "propagandists" who would allegedly pay for their crimes.

It led to the head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, ordering her statements to be checked for threats to journalists, government officials and public figures. The concern was echoed by the Russian Foreign Ministry, which lumped in Ashton-Cirillo with "other Ukrainian neo-Nazis and their sponsors" whose words and actions provide the world with "irrefutable evidence of the terrorist nature of the bloody regime of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky."

She previously drew the ire of Putin and the Kremlin when she, inspired by Ukrainian officials, developed an exaggerated persona pushing what she described as "escalation theory." It likely led to this new designation.

Ashton-Cirillo told Ukrainian media outlet Ukrinform in September that due to Russia's views about the LGBTQ community and the country's adverse reactions to being "attacked" by outsiders, her spokesperson role was a new type of military position that in essence didn't really exist except to poke the bear that is Moscow.

"No matter how ridiculous whatever it was that would come out of my mouth, it was simply to grab [Russia's] attention and use up their resources," she told Ukrinform. "It ended up becoming so successful that we leaked to Russian media this ridiculous idea that I was going to be named spokesperson in the TDF for the foreign media. But in reality, there's no such position.

"However, there was so much outrage in Russia that we decided to incorporate it into the character. So then I became 'TDF spokesperson.' ... It was just me talking to the camera, using this title all as part of this information operation. And then all hell broke loose, and ratings were amazing, and every night we were on television in Russia, and I would come up with more and more absurd statements."

In September, Republican Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio openly questioned Ashton-Cirillo's role in Ukraine. He wrote a letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, seeking answers about her position and accused her of threatening "physical violence to anyone who circulates 'Russian propaganda'" during a video message she made.

"Like myself, Senator Vance understands the importance of the First Amendment, and defending it is part of upholding an oath," the Las Vegas native told Newsweek at the time.