Russian security services are attempting to recruit Ukrainian refugees traveling to Estonia, the Baltic nation’s counterintelligence agency said in an annual report. The refugees are regularly interrogated by Russian spy agencies in filtration camps and border points, the report said.
(Bloomberg) — Russian security services are attempting to recruit Ukrainian refugees traveling to Estonia, the Baltic nation’s counterintelligence agency said in an annual report. The refugees are regularly interrogated by Russian spy agencies in filtration camps and border points, the report said.
The occupied Crimea Peninsula on Wednesday canceled the annual May 9 World War II victory parade, citing “security considerations” ahead of an expected Ukrainian counter-offensive. The decision followed moves by two regions bordering Ukraine, Kursk and Belgorod, whose localities have often come under shelling, to scrap the event this year.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russian officials have still not granted American diplomats access to detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovitch, a violation of diplomatic norms he said would further erode Russia’s international reputation following its invasion of Ukraine.
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(All times CET)
Crimea, Border Regions Cancel May 9 Parade Over Security Fears (2:15 p.m.)
The occupied Crimea Peninsula on Wednesday canceled the annual May 9 World War II victory parade, citing “security considerations” ahead of an expected Ukrainian counter-offensive. The decision followed moves by two regions bordering Ukraine, Kursk and Belgorod, whose localities have often come under shelling, to scrap the event this year.
The May 9 parades, which include a display of military might on Moscow’s Red Square and commemorate the defeat of Nazi Germany, have huge symbolic significance inside Russia. The Kremlin has used comparisons to World War II to justify its more than year-old invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine Says Alleged Execution of a Prisoner Is a ‘War Crime’ (1:30 p.m.)
Ukraine is appalled by a video allegedly of Russian troops decapitating a prisoner of war and urges the International Criminal Court to investigate immediately, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said in a statement on its website. “This is not the first instance of the Russian army treating Ukrainian prisoners inhumanely,” it said, adding that killing a POW is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, a war crime and can also be qualified as a crime against humanity.
Russia has first to verify the authenticity of “these horrible images”, and then probe whether the crime happened and if it happened, who committed it and where, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Tass.
Wagner PMC owner Yevgeny Prigozhin said in response to allegations the beheading could have been done by Wagner fighters that while “it’s bad when people’s heads are cut off, but I have not found anywhere that this is happening near Bakhmut and that the Wagner PMC fighters are involved in the execution.”
Estonian Spy Agency Warns of Russian Efforts to Recruit Refugees (1:20 p.m.)
Russian security services are attempting to recruit Ukrainian refugees traveling to Estonia, the Baltic nation’s counterintelligence agency said in an annual report.
Ukrainian refugees are regularly interrogated by Russian spy agencies such as the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, in filtration camps and border points, according to the report released by Estonia’s Internal Security Service on Wednesday.
“The FSB has also systematically worked to recruit war refugees arriving from Russia before they enter Estonia, both by threatening and bribing them,” the report said.
Russia Says US Intelligence Leaks May Aim to Deceive It (1:15 p.m.)
The leak of a series of highly classified US intelligence assessments may be a deliberate effort to mislead Russia, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, according to the state Tass news service. The online appearance of the documents may be “an intentional leak” by the US, Ryabkov said. “It’s possible that such techniques are being used to deceive their opponent, the Russian Federation.”
The US has started a criminal investigation over the leak of the intelligence secrets, which contain information about Ukraine’s armed capabilities as well as on other confidential matters.
South Korea to Provide Artillery to US to Aid Ukraine: DongA (8:25 a.m.)
The South Korean government signed an agreement to provide 500,000 155mm artillery shells to the US, which will free American reserves to send shells to Ukraine, according to the newspaper DongA Ilbo.
The lending process allows South Korea to maintain the principle of not directly providing lethal weapons to Ukraine while acknowledging repeated requests for assistance from the US, according to the newspaper.
Asia at Risk from ‘Geofragmentation,’ IMF Warns (8:44 a.m.)
Asia faces the biggest potential fallout from rising geopolitical tensions, according to a senior regional official at the International Monetary Fund, after China held military drills around Taiwan.
“Geofragmentation risks have risen quite sharply over the last five years, and have been accentuated by the war in Ukraine,” Krishna Srinivasan, director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department, told Bloomberg TV on Wednesday. “If those risks rise, then Asia risks to lose the most among all the regions in the world.”
Blinken Assails Russia Over Access to Detained Reporter (8:44 a.m.)
Blinken told reporters that the detained Wall Street Journal reporter, Evan Gershkovitch, still hasn’t had access to American diplomats.
“It sends a very strong message to people around the world to beware of even setting foot there lest they be arbitrarily detained,” Blinken said at a briefing on Tuesday.
Austin Vows to Find Source of Leaked Documents (8:44 a.m.)
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US won’t stop until it finds out how a trove of classified documents on Ukraine, Israel and other nations appeared online, in his first public remarks about the embarrassing leak.
“We take this very seriously,” Austin told reporters at a briefing Tuesday. “And we will continue to investigate, and turn over every rock, until we find the source of this and the extent of it.”
Austin said he was first briefed on April 6 about what he called “reports of unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and classified material” compiled by the Defense Department. In the days since, the Justice Department has opened an investigation and the US has sought to reassure allies about its ability to keep secrets safe.
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