UKRAINE WRAP | Second Russian scientist from Siberian city detained on treason charges
Image: Scott Olson/Getty Images
July 02 2022 — 18:10
Second Russian scientist from Siberian city detained on treason charges - TASS
Russia has detained a second scientist in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk on suspicion of state treason in the space of a few days, the TASS news agency reported on Saturday, citing a source close to the investigation.
Anatoly Maslov, a chief scientist at an institute of theoretical and applied mechanics in Novosibirsk, a city around 2,800 km (1,750 miles) east of Moscow, was detained and transferred to a prison in the Russian capital in an investigation by the FSB intelligence agency, TASS reported.
"Maslov is suspected of providing data that is a state secret," TASS quoted the source as saying, clarifying that the data was related to hypersonics.
Several Russian media outlets reported that Maslov was arrested on June 28. Reuters could not immediately verify those reports and a lawyer for Maslov could not immediately be reached.
Maslov's arrest comes in the same week that Dmitry Kolker, a doctor of physics and mathematics at Novosibirsk State University, was detained on state treason charges for allegedly collaborating with China's security services.
A number of Russian scientists have been arrested and charged with treason in recent years for allegedly passing sensitive material to foreigners. Critics of the Kremlin say the arrests often stem from unfounded paranoia.
State treason is punishable by up to 20 years in jail.
Reuters
July 02 2022 — 12:32
Blasts rock Ukraine city as Russian missiles drive up civilian death toll
Explosions rocked the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv on Saturday, the mayor said, at the end of a week in which Russian missiles have slammed into an apartment block and a shopping mall in other cities, killing dozens of people.
Air raid sirens sounded in the Mykolaiv region, which borders the vital Black Sea port of Odesa.
“There are powerful explosions in the city! Stay in shelters!” Mykolaiv mayor Oleksandr Senkevych wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
The cause of the blasts was not immediately clear, although Russia said on Saturday it had hit army command posts in the area. Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
Kyiv says Moscow has intensified missile attacks on targets far from the front-line and that it has deliberately hit civilian sites while Russian forces have been grinding out gains on the battlefield in the east, pummelling urban areas with artillery.
Russia says it has been aiming at military sites and denies taking aim at civilians. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said “Russian Armed Forces do not work with civilian targets”.
An apartment block was partly flattened in Odesa on Friday, which the authorities said killed at least 21 people, after Monday's strike on a shopping mall in the central city of Kremenchuk that officials said left at least 19 dead.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the strikes in his nightly video address on Friday as “conscious, deliberately targeted Russian terror and not some sort of error or a coincidental missile strike”.
Russia's defence ministry said on Saturday it had destroyed Ukrainian army posts in Mykolaiv and the eastern Donbas region with high-precision weapons and hit other military-related sites in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and Kharkiv to the north, Russian news agencies reported.
Thousands of civilians have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what Moscow calls a “special military operation” to root out nationalists. Ukraine and its Western allies say it is an unprovoked war of aggression.
Reuters
July 02 2022 — 11:30
Russia says it hit Ukrainian military sites in Donbas and Mykolaiv region
Russian forces destroyed five Ukrainian army command posts in the Donbas and in the Mykolaiv region with high-precision weapons and also struck three storage sites in the Zaporizhzhia region, the defence ministry was quoted on Saturday as saying.
The ministry, cited by Russian news agencies, also said the Russian air force had struck a Ukrainian weapons and equipment base at a tractor factory in Kharkiv, in northeast Ukraine.
Reuters
July 02 2022 — 11:00
Top Russian general inspects troops involved in Ukraine operation- defence ministry
The chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, has inspected divisions of Russian troops involved in Moscow's “special military operation” in Ukraine, the defence ministry said on Saturday.
The ministry published still photographs of Gerasimov at work. It was not immediately clear when the visit took place or if Gerasimov had visited Ukraine itself.
The ministry issued a similar statement about Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu last week.
Reuters
July 02 2022 — 10:45
Blasts rock Ukraine's Mykolaiv after Russian missiles kill 21 near Odesa
Powerful explosions rocked the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv early on Saturday, the mayor said, a day after authorities said at least 21 people were killed when Russian missiles struck an apartment building near the Black Sea port of Odesa.
Air raid sirens sounded across the Mykolaiv region, which borders the vital exporting port of Odesa, before the blasts.
“There are powerful explosions in the city! Stay in shelters!” Mykolaiv mayor Oleksandr Senkevich wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
July 02 2022 — 10:11
Russia eyes ways to bolster arms production
The European Union will propose 1 billion euros in short-term financial relief for Kyiv’s urgent cash needs. Russia is easing labour rules in a bid to boost arms production in the face of Western sanctions.
Russian missiles struck an apartment building and a recreation centre near the Black Sea port of Odesa early Friday, killing at least 21 people and injuring dozens more after Moscow’s forces withdrew from a strategic island about 100 miles to the south.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky used his nightly address to praise the departure of Russian forces from Snake Island. Moscow painted it as a gesture towards easing grain shipments in the southern waterway, but Kyiv said they were forced out by Ukrainian shelling.
July 02 2022 — 09:00
Russia's Gazprom says gas exports to Europe via Ukraine at 42.15 mcm
Russian gas producer Gazprom said its supply of gas to Europe through Ukraine via the Sudzha entry point was seen at 42.15 million cubic metres (mcm) on Saturday compared with 42.1 mcm on Friday.
An application to supply gas via the Sokhranovka entry point had again been rejected by Ukraine, Gazprom said.
Reuters