Ukrainians add 16-year-old to state-linked ‘kill list’

Luka Andreev protested against the Ukraine conflict, but did so under the Russian state flag

The moderators of the notorious Ukrainian state-linked Mirotvorets database have added a 16-year-old who brought Russia’s tricolor flag to an anti-war rally in Berlin earlier this month. The march was organized by Russian opposition activists abroad.

Luka Andreev, the son of two wooden toymakers who emigrated to Estonia in 2021, identifies as a Russian “patriot” and opposes both the Ukraine conflict and the administration of President Vladimir Putin.

Last week, he attended the opposition-organized march in Berlin carrying a Russian white-blue-red flag. During the rally, the national flag was wrestled away from him, according to videos he posted on Telegram.

“The organizers snatched the flag from me by force. I held on as long as I could,” he said. Posters calling for increased military aid to Ukraine were visible in the background, waved by other rallygoers.

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This incident landed Andreev on the Ukrainian Mirotvorets list as a “provocateur” for “openly glorifying” the Russian flag at the “so-called ‘anti-war rally’ in Berlin,” his profile states. “In his Telegram channel, he has repeatedly spread and continues to spread Kremlin propaganda,” it added.

While the moderators of the website claim it is merely a list of individuals considered enemies of Ukraine, the state-linked organization has been labeled a “kill list” after several people on it were killed under suspicious circumstances often attributed to Ukrainian intelligence.

Mirotvorets claims that it operates in accordance with the laws of Ukraine and international legal norms. However, its front page features calls to kill Russians and displays graphic images of deceased soldiers alleged to be Russian. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova previously described the extremist site as effectively a hit list of those Kiev wants to “eliminate.”

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In the run-up to the protest, disputes over the Russian flag erupted on social media, with opposition activists suggesting that only the white-blue-white tricolor should be permitted. The ‘alternative’ Russian flag was adopted by the so-called Freedom Legion, a Ukrainian paramilitary unit formed of alleged Russian collaborators early in the conflict and connected to Ukrainian intelligence. This unit has been involved in multiple raids on Russian border villages, particularly in Belgorod and Kursk, and is now designated as a terrorist organization in Russia.