The Ukrainian military pilot is charged with participating in the killing of two Russian journalists during fighting in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and subsequently crossing into Russia illegally – allegations seen by many in Ukraine as fabricated.
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Natalia Sharina, the director of the Library of Ukrainian Literature in Moscow, faces up to four years behind bars after the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against her using the country’s oft-criticized and vaguely defined “extremism” laws.
Natalya Sharina, who runs the Library of Ukrainian Literature, has been accused of inciting ethnic hatred.
“This is not the first attempt by the Kremlin to label all things Ukrainian “Russophobic” and ‘extremist, ‘” the Ukranian foreign ministry said.
“That issue is not on the Kremlin’s agenda”, he said.
“They were looking for extremist materials”, Semenenko told.
Referring to Ukrainians in derisive, coarse language, Zakharov also posted photographs of books about Stepan Bandera, a deeply divisive Ukrainian nationalist who collaborated with Nazi Germany to fend off Soviet troops during World War II.
Officials searched the library and seized books that contained “anti-Russian propaganda”, said the committee, which reports directly to President Vladimir Putin.
Russian authorities seized the children’s journal Barvinok as it depicted the flag of the Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary organisation Right Sector on one page-an illegal organisation in Russia-along with books by Ukrainian poet Dmitry Pavlychko and history books about controversial WWII figure Stepan Bandera.
Sharina’s deputy said the library did not stock Korchynsky’s books and called the accusations against her “absolute nonsense”.
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The Moscow library of Ukrainian literature was established by the government of Moscow and gets funding from the city.
