A Moscow court has formally arrested a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in relation to espionage allegations, according to Russian law enforcement agencies. Russia’s top security agency said Evan Gershkovich was detained in the Ural Mountains city of Ekaterinburg while allegedly trying to obtain classified information. The security service alleged that Gershkovich “was collecting classified information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex.” The Wall Street Journal “vehemently denies” allegations of espionage against Gershkovich, the newspaper said in a statement.
The Moscow court has ordered Gershkovich should be held in pre-trial custody for nearly two months until 29 May, according to a court document. Gershkovich told the court that he was not guilty of espionage, state-run Tass news agency is reporting. A lawyer representing Gershkovich was not allowed to attend the hearing, according to Tass.
Russian forces have had some success in the eastern frontline city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian military officials said on Wednesday evening, adding that their fighters were still holding on in a battle that has lasted several months. The US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War’s regular update appears to support this, saying, “geolocated footage published on March 28 and 29 indicates that Russian forces advanced in southern and southwestern Bakhmut.”
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, has said Moscow will continue to give the US advance notice about its missile tests despite suspending participation in the New Start nuclear arms treaty, reversing a statement he made on Wednesday. The White House on Tuesday said the US had told Russia it would cease exchanging some data on its nuclear forces after Moscow’s refusal to do so.
Alexei Moskalyov, a Russian man who was sentenced to two years in prison for discrediting the Russian armed forces, and whose daughter was taken into care, has been detained after fleeing house arrest, human rights activist and lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov said on Thursday. It was earlier reported that Moskalyov was arrested in Minsk in Belarus, having fled his house arrest.
The UK Ministry of Defence reports, citing Russian media, that authorities are preparing to launch a major recruitment campaign aimed at signing up 400,000 new troops to fight in Ukraine.
Ukrainian volunteers who have been evacuating civilians from the frontlines of the war with Russia say some parents have been hiding their children in basements to prevent them from being taken. While parents have given different reasons, most volunteers have attributed the phenomenon to a combination of poverty and the psychological condition of the families, who have been living under bombing for months.
European Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski would support curbs on trading with Ukraine if Poland proposed such a solution, he said on Thursday, amid anger from farmers over the effect of Ukrainian imports on grain prices.
Lawmakers from the pro-Russia, far-right Freedom Party walked out of the lower house of Austria’s parliament on Thursday during a speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, protesting that it violated Austria’s neutrality. Austria says its neutrality prevents it from military involvement in the conflict and while it supports Ukraine politically it cannot send the country weapons in its fight against the Russian invasion. The Freedom Party (FPÖ) had warned days before that it would hold some form of protest against the address.
Four bankers who helped a close friend of Vladimir Putin move millions of francs through Swiss bank accounts have been convicted of lacking diligence in financial transactions. The four were found guilty on Thursday of helping Sergey Roldugin, a concert cellist who has been dubbed “Putin’s wallet” by the Swiss government.
China said its military was willing to work together with the Russian military to strengthen strategic communication and coordination.
Dymtro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, has criticised the fact that Russia will take over chairing the UN security council on 1 April, describing it as a “bad joke”.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, plans to attend the Nato foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on 3 April to 5 April. He will meet Kuleba, top EU diplomat Josep Borrell and Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.
King Charles III lauded the current unity between the UK and Germany in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying “the scourge of war is back in Europe”. The king said both the UK and Germany had shown “vital leadership” and praised Berlin’s decision to provide large military support to Ukraine as “remarkably courageous, important and appreciated”.
Criticism by some European governments – including Ukraine’s – of a plan for a full return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to international sport is deplorable and cuts into the autonomy of sport, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, Thomas Bach, said on Thursday.
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday that Moscow was still talking to the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the idea of a safety zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant that has been controlled by Russian forces since March 2022.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, had made a second visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine on Wednesday amid an escalation in the fighting around it. Rafael Mariano Grossi was shown around the plant by Russian occupying forces and officials, telling reporters: “It is obvious that military activity is increasing in this whole region, so every possible measure and precautions should be taken so that the plant is not attacked.”
Russia began exercises with the Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system and several thousand troops, its defence ministry said on Wednesday. Vladimir Putin has aimed to make the Yars missile system, which replaced the Topol system, part of Russia’s “invincible weapons” and the mainstay of the ground-based component of its nuclear arsenal.
