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Agencies

A former Ukrainian soldier who sent the location of sensitive military targets to Russia has been sentenced to five years in prison, Ukrainian prosecutors said on Thursday.
Ukraine has arrested thousands of people on suspicion of collaborating with Russian troops since the war began in February 2022, many in the east and south of the country.
The man, whom prosecutors did not name, allegedly contacted a “representative of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB)” using the Signal messaging app, prosecutors in the northeast Kharkiv region said.
He then sent the FSB the positions of soldiers and military equipment in the Kharkiv region and southern Mykolaiv region, they added.




“The enemy needed this information to conduct targeted air strikes on Ukrainian defenders,” the prosecutors said.
The man was detained near the frontline town of Kupiansk and “fully admitted his guilt”, they added.
Russia launched a fresh ground assault into the Kharkiv region last month, capturing pockets of territory across the border.
The United Nations said last year that Ukraine had opened more than 6,600 criminal cases “against individuals for collaboration and other conflict-related crimes” since the war began.
In May, Ukrainian security services detained six people accused of helping Russia strike a block of flats in the eastern Donetsk region, killing nine people.
Meanwhile, Russia said on Thursday it had detained a Frenchman suspected of gathering information about the Russian military, a serious charge at a time of acute tension between Moscow and the West over the war in Ukraine.
A Swiss-based non-profit, the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), said the arrested man was its employee and named him as Laurent Vinatier, 47, an adviser on Russia and Eurasia.
Russia’s state Investigative Committee said the Frenchman was suspected, over a period of several years, to have “purposefully collected information in the field of military and military-technical activities of the Russian Federation”.

It added: “This information, when obtained by foreign sources, can be used against the security of the state. For these purposes, he repeatedly visited the territory of Russia, including the city of Moscow, where he held meetings with citizens of the Russian Federation”.
Investigators said the Frenchman, whom they did not identify by name, would be charged shortly under a Russian law on failing to register as a “foreign agent”, which carries a punishment of up to five years in prison.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the arrested man does not work for the French state.
A representative of HD said it was aware of Vinatier’s detention in Russia.
“We are working to get more details of the circumstances and to secure Laurent’s release”, the representative said.
The website of HD says it has operated since 1999 to “help prevent, mitigate and resolve armed conflict through dialogue and mediation” in countries such as Spain, the Philippines and Libya.

It was not immediately clear if the organisation has operations or staff in Russia.
Vinatier’s LinkedIn page says he has been an adviser to the Eurasia/Russia Programme at HD for 10 years, based in Geneva.
He completed his PhD on the Chechen diaspora and has lectured on international relations and political economy at various European universities. He has written several books and book chapters on Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Vinatier continued to spend time in Russia after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
He met representatives of the Moscow Orthodox Church in April 2022, according to a notice on a Church website.
A short video clip released by the Investigative Committee showed a man in jeans and a black shirt being detained in a restaurant by security officials with masks over their faces, escorted into a van and then being walked into a building. The suspect’s face was blurred.
Reuters was able to identify the restaurant shown in the clip as a cafe called Akademia in central Moscow.
Westerners arrested under Russian security laws since the start of the Ukraine war have found themselves caught up in the deepest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West for more than 60 years.
Last year, US reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested on suspicion of trying to obtain military secrets and charged with espionage, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years.
Another American, Paul Whelan, was convicted in 2020 and is serving a 16-year sentence for spying. The United States has designated both as “wrongfully detained” and is seeking their release.
Gordon Black, a US soldier, was detained on May 2 by police in the far eastern city of Vladivostok and went on trial on Thursday on suspicion of stealing from his Russian girlfriend and threatening to kill her.
Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was arrested last October and is awaiting trial on charges including failing to register as a “foreign agent” – a designation that Russia applies to people and organisations it deems to be using foreign funding to conduct political activity, and which it has used extensively to clamp down on dissent.
Agence France-Presse and Reuters


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Ukraine war

Ukraine jails ex-soldier who sent Russia locations of military targets

Damaged buildings in Vovchansk, Kharkiv region, Ukraine on Sunday. Photo: National Police of Ukraine “Lyut” via Reuters

Ukrainian soldiers on the front line at an undisclosed location in the Donetsk region, Ukraine. Photo: EPA-EFE / Oleg Petrasiuk / 24th Mechanised Brigade 

US soldier Gordon Black is escorted to a courtroom in Vladivostok, Russia on Thursday. Photo: AP

Putin warns that Russia could arm others with long-range weapons to strike Western targets

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin speaks with heads of International news agencies in St Petersburg. Photo: AFP

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin speaking to foreign news leaders. Photo: Sputnik via AP

Ukrainian forces fire a BM-21 ‘Grad’ multiple rocket launcher at Russian position, in the Kharkiv region. Photo: AFP

Ukraine allowed to strike inside Russia, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz say

US soldiers conduct Army Tactical Missile System live fire testing at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, in December 2021. Ukraine has used US-provided long-range missiles to strike targets in Russian-occupied areas. Photo: US Army via AP

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Photo: EPA-EFE

Ukraine war: Kyiv’s frontline troops fight Russia without knowing how to fire a gun, ‘everything learned on the spot’

Frontline Ukrainian units getting new troops have to reteach soldiers the basic skills like firing their weapons, according to a Washington Post report. Photo: Reuters

Ukraine war: Kyiv says it ‘stopped’ Russia in Kharkiv, now pushing back

A Ukrainian serviceman guards an area near the town of Vovchansk in Kharkiv region. Photo: Reuters

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a shelling on a printing house in Kharkiv. Photo: EPA-EFE

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Ex-soldier is among thousands of people Ukraine has arrested on suspicion of collaborating with Russian troops since the war began


Ukraine has arrested thousands of people on suspicion of collaborating with Russian troops since the war began in February 2022.
