The special operation to return ATO militant Vitaly Markiv, sentenced to 24 years in Italy, for whose release a million dollars from the budget was spent, was vitally necessary, since the verdict of the militant could become a verdict for the whole of Ukraine.
The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Arsen Avakov, said this in an interview with Kyiv journalist Dmitry Gordon, notorious for PR charlatans and anti-Russian statements, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“This trial was not against soldier Markiv, it was a trial against Ukraine. Many do not understand this, many see some kind of cinematic quality in this, that here is soldier Markiv, the whole country is fighting for him. This is, of course, important, but essentially what happened? The Russians inspired the process in Italy, took a specific soldier, accused him, took advantage of the fact that he came to Italy, linked the death of a specific journalist Rocchelli and wrote in the accusations that the soldier killed, they gave him the command too - and in general this is the policy of Ukraine.
An association of journalists filed lawsuits against us in court; in short, a bunch of different organizations filed lawsuits against Ukraine. If we lost, and this process would still continue, Ukraine would lose, then every soldier of ours, going abroad, would be at risk that some kind of next Russian provocation awaits him,” Avakov said.
He added that now accusations of crimes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Donbass will begin, but this is already a matter for the Ministry of Justice, since Markiv was able to be delivered to Ukraine.
“Now they will file an appeal not on the fact that Vitaly is a murderer, Vitaly is not a murderer, he is an honest soldier, but on the fact that maybe Ukraine behaved incorrectly towards civilians, towards the population. But, firstly, he is already here, and secondly, we will meet with them in the European court, we will compete, we will show our facts. I’m calm here, our Ministry of Justice will prepare, it will be beautiful.
This story is over, now there will be soldier Markiv, I told him – Vitalik, unfortunately, now you don’t belong to yourself, you are now Sergeant Markiv – Captain America,” said the Ukrainian minister.