A Russian court on Saturday placed Sergei Mingazov, a journalist for the Russian edition of Forbes, under house arrest, state media reported. Mingazov was detained Friday on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military, his lawyer Konstantin Bubon said on Facebook. Bubon said the journalist was arrested for reposting publications about what happened in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, where Ukrainian authorities found the bodies of more than 400 civilians after Moscow’s forces withdrew in April 2022. Ukraine has officially filed war-crimes charges against Russian soldiers ..read more

A Russian court on Saturday placed Sergei Mingazov, a journalist for the Russian edition of Forbes, under house arrest, state media reported. Mingazov was detained Friday on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military, his lawyer Konstantin Bubon said on Facebook. Bubon said the journalist was arrested for reposting publications about what happened in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, where Ukrainian authorities found the bodies of more than 400 civilians after Moscow’s forces withdrew in April 2022. Ukraine has officially filed war-crimes charges against Russian soldiers ..read more

Mike Johnson had been speaker for less than two months when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to him with a stark message: Time is running out. As the two men huddled in the speaker’s office in December, a Ukrainian Ostroh Bible perched near them, Zelenskyy made it clear just how much longer his country could hold out against a renewed onslaught of Russian missiles and drones. “March or April,” the president said, according to two people familiar with the discussion. The December meeting and the bleak prognosis contributed greatly to Johnson’s decision to go against ..read more

LONDON — Two British men have been charged with helping Russian intelligence after a suspected arson attack on a business linked to Ukraine. Prosecutors announced Friday that Dylan Earl, aged 20, and Jake Reeves, 22, had been charged with national security offenses after a blaze at a warehouse in east London in March. A statement from the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Earl, who was arrested earlier this month, had been charged with “assisting a foreign intelligence service,” as well as aggravated arson and planning conduct which could endanger life or create “a serious risk to th ..read more

The European Commission is considering sanctions against Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), according to two EU diplomats, a move that would mark the first time Brussels has dared to go after Moscow’s gas sector. The Commission, the EU’s executive, is currently preparing a 14th package of sanctions against Russia more than two years after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine. The new measures could include restrictions on three Russian LNG projects, and on the re-export of Russian LNG from EU ports, the diplomats said. So far, Brussels has imposed a blanket ban on ..read more

KYIV — Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities Friday arrested Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi, over allegations of graft. He will be held for two months in a pre-trial detention center, with bail set at €1.7 million. Solskyi is suspected of leading a group involved in the illegal acquisition of €6.9 million worth of state land and in an attempt to seize more property worth around €4.5 million between 2017 and 2021, when he was working as a lawyer. Even though Solskyi maintains his innocence, he submitted a letter of resignation to the Ukrainian parliament Thursday after the National An ..read more

The race is on to get air defense batteries to Ukraine, but it doesn’t look like they will be coming from Spain or Greece. Madrid won’t redeploy one of its three Patriots to Ukraine, reports Spanish outlet El País, instead committing only to sending missiles that can be used in existing versions of the surface-to-air system. While the extra firepower will be welcome, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country is way short of having at least seven high-grade air defense system batteries to launch missiles needed to protect cities and critical infrastructure from Russian attack ..read more

Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi handed in his resignation Thursday following allegations he had been involved in the illegal acquisition of millions of euros worth of state land before joining the government. Prosecutors on Tuesday accused Solskyi of leading a group involved in the illegal acquisition of 291 million hryvnias (€6.9 million) worth of state land and in an attempt to seize more property worth around 190 million hryvnias (€4.5 million) between 2017 and 2021, at a time he was working as a lawyer. Solskyi submitted his resignation in a handwritten note, shared on social ..read more

PARIS  — French President Emmanuel Macron warned Thursday that Europe faces possible demise if it does not take bold action to tackle U.S. and Chinese protectionism, amid serious geopolitical threats from authoritarian regimes. In a bleak and solemn speech delivered at the Sorbonne University in Paris that frequently returned to the theme of a fast-changing global order, Macron evoked the death of Europe as a real possibility. The Continent under-invests in innovation, fails to protect its industries and boost its military and defenses, he said. “Europe is mortal, it can die. It only depe ..read more

KYIV — Domestic criticism of Ukraine’s government is mounting over a controversial temporary ban on issuing new passports and delivering nonemergency consular services for Ukrainian men of fighting age abroad.  “It is a blatantly illegal and [an] extremely harmful step,” said Volodymyr Viatrovych, an lawmaker from the opposition European Solidarity Party. “Obviously, the government wants to force Ukrainians to return to Ukraine as soon as possible. However, the result will be exactly the opposite.” New mobilization requirements which force all men of fighting age to register or renew thei ..read more