Ukraine has arrested two suspected Russian spies. Russia warns Poland about nuclear missiles. More information in the news blog.
Russia: Suspect arrested for planning attack
12.30 p.m.: Russia says it has arrested two Ukrainian supporters who are accused of planning attacks on police and military facilities. According to the Russian domestic intelligence service FSB, the suspects arrested in the southern Volgograd region are pro-Ukrainian members of an extremist nationalist group. Accordingly, explosives and firearms were found during searches in the suspects’ premises.
The FSB said the suspects had established contacts with nationalists in Ukraine and planned attacks on a police station, a Russian army recruiting office and other targets in the town of Volzhsky. Public places should also be the target of attacks.
Two men arrested in Ukraine on espionage charges
11:53 a.m.: Two men have been arrested in Ukraine for allegedly passing on military information to Russia. The two suspects posed as private tradesmen and traveled around the northeastern Kharkiv region, explains the Ukrainian domestic secret service SBU. There they secretly spied out the locations of Ukrainian troops and defense lines and passed them on to the Russian side in preparation for their attacks.
The suspects were arrested in their homes, it said. According to the SBU, they face life imprisonment if convicted. In Ukraine, prosecutors have opened thousands of cases for alleged collaboration with the Russian side since the Russian war of aggression began in February 2022. In Russia, too, people are regularly prosecuted because of allegations of cooperation with Ukraine.
On Friday, a Ukrainian court sentenced a couple to 15 years in prison for treason. The man and his wife were accused of informing Russia about Ukrainian army positions, including “places of inpatient treatment for injured Ukrainian soldiers.” The couple was allegedly recruited by the Russian domestic secret service FSB.
Journalist for the Russian Fobes magazine says he has been arrested
11:48 a.m: The Russian edition of Forbes reports the arrest of one of its journalists. Sergei Mingasov is accused of spreading “fake news” about the Russian army, the magazine reports on its website. There is no contact with the employee. Mingasov’s lawyer says his client is in a detention center in the city of Khabarovsk in Russia’s Far East. After the invasion of Ukraine, Russia drastically tightened its laws controlling the media.
Zelensky warns of new Chernobyl disaster
11:31 a.m.: On the anniversary of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of a repeat of the disaster. “The largest nuclear power plant in Europe near Zaporizhzhia has been in the hands of Russian terrorists for 785 days,” the head of state recalled on Telegram. He urges the international community to put pressure on Russia so that the power plant comes back under Ukrainian control. “And that all nuclear objects in Ukraine are safe from Russian attacks,” writes Zelensky. That alone would save the world from a new nuclear catastrophe.
At the same time, the President remembers the people who were deployed around the Chernobyl power plant during the nuclear accident 38 years ago: “Tens of thousands of people stopped the spread of the Chernobyl disaster at the cost of their health and their lives and helped to prevent its terrible consequences in 1986 and in in the years that followed”. Zelensky also recalls that the decommissioned power plant was under Russian control for 35 days after the Russian invasion. “Russian soldiers robbed the laboratories, took the guard prisoner and humiliated the staff,” writes the head of state.
