Live Ukraine war: Russia detains 50 Ukrainian 'nationalists' in effort to crush underground resistance
Russia’s National Guard says it has detained 50 suspected Ukrainian nationalists in the occupied south in a clear attempt to showcase to the Kremlin their efforts to stamp out underground resistance.
The National Guard, which typically dealt with protest rallies at home before the war, said in a statement on Monday that the unidentified 50 people were detained in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and some of them had weapons caches with two dozen grenade launchers, 12 portable surface-to-surface missile systems, rifles and ammunition.
Authorities did not say if the arrested people were facing any charges but merely said they were “suspected members of Ukrainian nationalist groups”.
The report comes the day after Ukrainian authorities claimed that the occupation administration moved its key members out of Kherson to Melitopol, deeper behind front lines, allegedly fearing Russian attacks. Separately, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, sacked three regional chiefs of the security agency SBU.
Two spy chiefs in western Ukraine and the SBU head in Kyiv were dismissed a month after Mr Zelensky fired the head of the SBU over suspected security lapses including the failure to weed out Russian collaborateurs in the ranks in southern Ukraine.
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2:39pmAfternoon Summary
Here are the key events from Ukraine today:
- Ukrainian forces reported heavy Russian shelling and attempts to advance on several towns in the eastern region of Donetsk, but said they had repelled many of the attacks.
- Lawyers for American basketball star Brittney Griner have filed an appeal of her nine-year Russian prison sentence for drug possession, amid talks between the US and Russia that could lead to a high-profile prisoner swap.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow valued its ties with countries in Latin American, Asia and Africa and was ready to offer modern weapons to its allies.
Captured Ukrainian fighters face being paraded in public prison cages on stage at Mariupol’s grand Philharmonic hall during an anticipated "show trial" of the prisoners of war
- 2:18pmRussia will facilitate IAEA mission to Ukrainian nuclear plant
Russia will do "everything necessary" to allow specialists from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement today.
"In close cooperation with the Agency and its leadership, we will do everything necessary for the IAEA specialists to be at the station and give a truthful assessment of the destructive actions of the Ukrainian side," Ms Zakharova said.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe, was captured by Russia during its invasion of Ukraine. The plant has come under shelling in recent days, with both Moscow and Kyiv accusing each other of risking a nuclear accident.