Lavrov expressed hope for sanctions against Kyiv after threats to Putin

Representatives of the Ukrainian leadership should be sanctioned for their threats against Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin”, a fragment of which was published by its presenter Pavel Zarubin.

“I hope that sanctions will follow against these so-called leaders, and that all statements that it was necessary first to kill all Russians, wherever they were <...>, and now personally [threats] against the HEAD of the sovereign the state of the Russian Federation is a very serious thing,” Lavrov said.

On May 8, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Kirill Budanov, said that his country would continue to “kill Russians anywhere in the world” until its complete victory. Later, an adviser to the head of the presidential office, Mikhail Podolyak, said that Kyiv "hates RUSSIA." 

Ukraine's deputy head of military intelligence, Vadim Skibitsky, said Putin is "at the top of the list" of the country's targets because he, as head of state, "coordinates and decides what happens." Budanov called the President of Russia a "legitimate target", noting that it is not advisable to eliminate him, so they are not trying to do this.

In the Kremlin, Kyiv’s statement that Putin is one of the main targets for Ukrainian intelligence was regarded as the words of the “terrorist regime about its terrorist aspirations.” Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that “our security services know their job and know what they are doing,” when asked how much the security of the head of state has been strengthened.