11:54 a.m .: Moscow assures that the arrested US journalist was “caught in the act”.
Russian diplomacy said the US Wall Street Journal journalist arrested in Russia for “espionage” was caught “with his hand in his pocket”.
“What the employee of the American publication Wall Street Journal did in Yekaterinburg had nothing to do with journalism,” Russian diplomatic spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram, adding that the reporter is “not the first famous Westerner to be caught in the act became”. .
11:38 am: The Wall Street Journal is “deeply concerned for the safety” of its journalist arrested in Russia
The Wall Street Journal said it was “deeply concerned for the safety” of its journalist, who was arrested in Russia for “espionage” over tensions between Moscow and Washington over the Ukraine conflict.
“The Wall Street Journal is deeply concerned for safety,” by Evan Gershkovich, the newspaper said in a brief statement. The reporter’s arrest was announced by the Russian Security Services (FSB) on Thursday.
10.40 a.m .: Soon a Ukrainian counter-offensive?
Speculations about a possible Ukrainian counter-offensive in the direction of Melitopol have been circulating for several weeks. Taking this southern city would sever the land corridor seized by Russia to connect its territory to Crimea, a peninsula annexed in 2014. We continue on France 24 with the great reporter Patricia Allémonière.
9:53 a.m .: The Turkish parliament votes on Finland’s NATO candidacy
Turkey’s parliament is scheduled to vote on Finland’s NATO candidacy on Thursday, according to the parliamentary agenda consulted by AFP. Turkey would be the last member of the Atlantic Alliance to ratify the Nordic country’s accession.
The ratification will be voted on during a parliamentary session starting at 14:00 (11:00 GMT).
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave the green light for Finland to join NATO in mid-March and submitted ratification to the Turkish parliament, a decision immediately welcomed by the Atlantic Alliance.
The ratification should be voted on without hesitation, as Turkey’s parliamentary committee on foreign affairs approved it last week.
Turkey is the latest country to approve Finland’s membership following ratification by Hungary’s parliament on Monday.
Since May 2022, Recep Tayyip Erdogan had blocked the Nordic country and even more so its Swedish neighbor from joining the Atlantic Alliance.
9.45 a.m .: An American journalist is arrested in Russia for espionage
The Russian Security Services (FSB) announced the arrest of Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich for espionage.
The arrest of a foreign journalist on such an allegation is unprecedented in recent Russian history.
“The FSB foiled the illegal activity of the accredited correspondent (…) of the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper Wall Street Journal, citizen of the United States Evan Gershkovich,” the FSB said in an official statement cited by the Russian authorities.
He was “suspected of espionage for the benefit of the United States” and collected information “about a Russian military-industrial complex.”
Before joining the American Daily in 2022, Evan Gershkovich was an AFP correspondent in Moscow and had previously worked for the Moscow Times, an English-language publication. The 31-year-old journalist speaks perfect Russian, is of Russian descent and his parents live in the United States.
09:36: Ukraine calls Russia’s presidency of the UN Security Council a “bad joke”
Ukraine has called Russia’s future presidency of the UN Security Council, which begins for a month on Saturday, a “bad joke”.
“Russia’s presidency of the UN Security Council on April 1 is a bad joke. Russia has seized its seat, it’s waging a colonial war, its president is a war criminal wanted by the ICC for child kidnapping,” head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba tweeted.
1:25 am: US staff conjures up “slaughter” for Russians at Bakhmout
General Mark Milley of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff told Washington that Russia had made “no progress” on Bakhmout in the past three weeks. “This is carnage for the Russians,” he said.
In Ukraine’s Donetsk region (east), fighting in recent months has been centered on the plain of the town of Bakhmout, Kiev said it was holding up resistance inside the city center and exhausting Russian forces.
The most important thing about the day of 29
The Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi visited the Zaporijjia power plant on Wednesday. On site, he regretted an “increase in military activity” near the nuclear site occupied by Russian forces.
For his part, President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged that the sanctions imposed on his country could have “negative” consequences for the Russian economy.
With AFP and Portal