Russia has added Ben Wallace, the former British defence minister, to a wanted list in connection with an unspecified criminal investigation, according to state media reports on Wednesday, which cited the Russian Interior Ministry’s database.
Mr Wallace served as the UK’s defence secretary from before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 until August 2023.
Since leaving office, he has consistently advocated for increased military support for Kyiv and has been a vocal critic of Russian aggression.
The state media reports did not provide further details regarding the investigation, and Mr Wallace has not yet responded to requests for comment.
This development follows a call last October from a regional Russian lawmaker for Mr Wallace to be placed on Russia’s international wanted list.
This demand stemmed from comments he made at the Warsaw Security Forum in September, where he suggested assisting Ukraine in carrying out a military strike on the bridge connecting southern Russia to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
“We have to help Ukraine have the long-range capabilities to make Crimea unviable. We need to choke the life out of Crimea.
“And if we do that, I think Putin will realise he’s got something to lose,” he said.
“We need to smash the cursed bridge.”
It is not clear how many foreign officials or public figures are on the Russian Interior Ministry’s database of wanted persons.
In 2024, independent news outlet Mediazona said the list included dozens of European politicians and officials.
The news comes as more than 100 Russian drones targeted areas of Ukraine on Wednesday, president Volodymyr Zelensky said, hours after another barrage of missiles in civilian areas killed at least eight people.
“Russia continues its strikes and is doing so brazenly – deliberately targeting our railway infrastructure and civilian sites in our cities,” Zelensky said in a post on X.
The overnight strikes targeted Ukraine’s residential and railway infrastructure in the central Dnipro and northeastern Kharkiv regions, port infrastructure in the southern Odesa region, and energy facilities in the central Poltava region, according to Zelensky.
On Tuesday, he said, 14 regions came under attack throughout the day.
“It is important to support Ukraine and not remain silent about Russia’s war. Every time the war disappears from the top of the news, it encourages Russia to become even more savage,” Zelensky said, in an apparent reference to world attention being gripped by the Iran war.
Moscow’s attacks on its neighbour are unrelenting, even as Ukraine is emboldened by its recent military accomplishments and as US president Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin claim – without providing evidence – that the war could be approaching the end.
