(WASHINGTON) — Leaked classified documents about the U.S. effort to assist Ukraine’s military were posted on the internet much sooner than this week according to an ABC News review of internet posts that indicates the documents, as well as additional documents, were posted on the internet in early March shortly after they were produced. The earlier timeline for the posting of the top secret documents on the internet so soon after being issued only deepens concerns about the operational security risks raised by the leak.
The Pentagon announced on Thursday that it was reviewing the apparent leak of U.S. military documents about the war in Ukraine dated to March 1 that provided information on Ukrainian troop and casualty numbers, Ukrainian training schedules and the timing of U.S. weapons deliveries, among other things. The documents posted on the internet do not appear to include any military planning for the long-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive that is expected later this spring.
“We are aware of the reports of social media posts, and the Department is reviewing the matter” Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said in a statement provided to ABC News.
A U.S. official told ABC News that the U.S. government is working to have the documents brought down by social media platforms.
But as of Friday photographs of the documents were still being posted on various social media platforms.
However, it appears that the documents have been posted on the internet much sooner than this week as ABC News has obtained information that indicates that those documents, and some additional documents, were posted on the internet in early March.
A U.S. official discounted the intelligence value of the documents posted on the web telling ABC News that “the assessment is that the documents are of limited intelligence value and appear to have been altered from the original documents.”
The official described them as “a snapshot in time from five weeks ago and the disposition of forces is no longer relevant to the battlefield.”
Each of the documents posted on social media platforms appears to be photographs of folded printouts of individual PowerPoint slides produced by the U.S. military that contain details of the battlefield situation in Ukraine on March 1.
Some of them also contain information about the readiness rates of Ukrainian units, particularly of nine Ukrainian military brigades being supplied by the United States and NATO allies.
And in at least one instance, the documents appear to have been altered to reflect Russian fatality estimates that are significantly lower than the 200,000 killed and wounded that have been publicly stated by U.S. officials.
That alteration has led to speculation among national security analysts that Russia may be behind the dissemination of the leak.
“As many of these were pictures of documents, it appears that it was a deliberate leak done by someone that wished to damage the Ukraine, U.S., and NATO efforts,” said Mick Mulroy, an ABC News contributor and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense.
“Russia’s obvious manipulation of some facts has made it more difficult to determine what is real and what is not,” said Mulroy. “Something that may help somewhat limit the damage overall ironically.”
Mulroy speculates that a leak investigation has already started that “it will be very thorough in finding out how this happened and who was responsible. That individual (or individuals) needs to be held accountable.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior Ukrainian official, said in a statement that the leak contained a “very large amount of fictitious information” that appeared to be “standard elements of operational games by Russian intelligence and nothing more.
“Russia has no doubt that the United States or NATO are directly or indirectly involved in the conflict,” Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said about the leaked documents on Friday.
The Pentagon says it is reviewing the apparent leak, but if a formal investigation is launched, it would presumably include a look at officials who would have access to the documents.
Asked to comment on the postings about the documents being posted on an earlier date a Pentagon spokesman referred back to its earlier statement.
Investigators in previous leak investigations have been known to use polygraph tests to help determine the truthfulness of people being interviewed for the investigation.
Vlad Karkov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The Taliban banned Afghan women from working at the United Nations in Afghanistan this week, adding another restriction to the long list the Taliban has imposed on Afghan women since retaking power in August 2021.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said any ban on Afghan women working for the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, would be “unacceptable and frankly inconceivable,” in a statement after the Taliban order was issued.
“This is the latest in a disturbing trend undermining the ability of aid organizations to reach those most in need. It goes without saying, but unfortunately, it does need saying, that female staff are essential for the United Nations to deliver life-saving assistance,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement Tuesday.
The U.N. provides lifesaving assistance to the Afghanistan population, which has become even more necessary since the Taliban regained power in 2021. Several international aid organizations that had been operating in the country left after the Taliban took power and stopped providing assistance as a result of the new government.
“Such orders, as we saw today, violate the fundamental rights of women and infringe upon the principle of non-discrimination. Female staff members are essential to ensure the continuation of the U.N. operations on the ground in Afghanistan,” Dujarric said Tuesday.
The order comes after the Taliban imposed a series of other restrictions on Afghan women over the past year. In 2022, the Taliban restricted women and girls’ access to education. The Taliban also restricted Afghan women’s ability to work for international aid organizations in December 2022, but, until this week, that did not apply to women working for the .U.N mission.
Before this week’s decree, the Taliban attempted to intimidate women working for the U.N. by accusing them of breaking dress code by not wearing hijabs. The Taliban also tried to intimidate Afghan women working for different U.N. offices across the country by contacting them directly to threaten them or passing the message to family members asking them to stop working.
Several Afghan women working for the U.N. have already experienced restrictions on their movements, including harassment, intimidation and detention.
The additional restriction further isolates Afghan women and poses a problem for the Taliban, which relies on support from the U.N. Many women’s rights activists believe the Taliban is using the ban on Afghan women as a tool to get more leverage from the international community.
“They are certainly trying to remove women from every aspect of society, either its simple presence in the society or working environment,” activist Mariam Maroof Arvin told ABC News. “Taliban also use these restrictions as a tool to gain more from international community in terms of aid and to push them to accept their demands.”
The Taliban has not faced severe consequences for the restrictions they’ve placed on Afghan women over the past year. Western countries like the U.S. and international organizations like the U.N. have condemned the actions by the Taliban, but little action has been taken beyond that.
“I hope this time the organizations defending women rights and international community as a whole won’t give up to Taliban’s demand and stand firm against them. That will be the only way out of these evil demands. I hope everyone come together in protecting women rights,” Arvin said.
(NEW YORK) — The United States will face an uphill battle in any efforts it takes to free detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich — who has been imprisoned in Russia for over a week — because of the seriousness of the espionage charges against him and the fact that Moscow shows no sign of backing down, experts told ABC News..
Despite the fact that senior members of the Biden administration have repeatedly said the charges against Gershkovich — are unequivocally false, Russia views the allegations as more serious than other cases in which they’ve made prisoner swaps.
While the relationship between the U.S. and Russia has plummeted to a near all-time low in recent years, hostage diplomacy has been a rare area of cooperation between the powers. In 2022, the administration was able to secure the release of two Americans from Russia via prisoner swaps—WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was jailed for nearly 10 months after being detained on drug charges, and Trevor Reed, who was imprisoned for almost three years for allegedly assaulting a police officer.
In a statement released Thursday, Moscow’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Gershkovich was “detained red-handed while trying to obtain classified information, using his journalistic status as a cover for illegal actions qualified as espionage” and attempts by the U.S. to pressure Russian authorities to release him were “futile and meaningless.”
Interfax, a Russian news agency, reported on Friday that Russian investigators had formally charged Gershkovich with espionage, and that his lawyers filed for an appeal, which is scheduled to be heard in a Moscow court in mid-April.
Gershkovich’s lawyers and the Wall Street Journal have also denied the accusations against the reporter.
“The legal avenue is one of several avenues we are working to advocate for Evan’s release. We continue to work with the White House, State Department and relevant U.S. government officials to secure Evan’s release,” the Wall Street Journal’s editor-in-chief Emma Tucker said in a letter to her newsroom on Tuesday.
But John Woodward, a former CIA officer and international relations professor at Boston University, predicts there’s a long road ahead for Gershkovich.
“I would not want to be Evan at the moment,” he said.
He suggested that if a prisoner swap were to be arranged, Russian President Vladimir Putin would want a “spy for a spy,” referencing Russia’s deep loyalty “to individuals who have committed espionage on their behalf.”
But that requirement is likely to complicate any deal with the U.S., as illustrated by the so-far futile efforts to free Paul Whelan, an American arrested in 2018 while visiting Moscow. He was convicted on espionage charges, which the U.S. vehemently denies, and sentenced to 16 years in a maximum-security prison colony.
Whelan was left out of the prisoner exchange that freed Griner. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month that the U.S. had put forth a new proposal to free Whelan months ago, but so far Russia has not publicly shown any interest in accepting.
While the details of Blinken’s offer are unknown, Sergey Cherkasov, a Russian national accused by the Department of Justice of operating as an illegal agent for the country’s intelligence service, could be more enticing to Moscow according to experts.
Danielle Gilbert, a foreign policy fellow at Dartmouth College who specializes in hostage diplomacy, said the timing of Gershkovich’s arrest—just days after Cherkasov was charged by the U.S. in late March–is very “suspicious,” and that the reporter’s arrest could have been a retaliatory act by Moscow.
The Russian government has denied that Cherkasov is a spy, and he has not yet appeared in court to address the allegations made by American investigators.
However, the Department of Justice claimed in a statement that the evidence in the case shows that Cherkasov spent years illegally gathering information about American entities and passing it along to his handlers in Russia’s intelligence community, undermining U.S. national security.
Cherkasov is currently incarcerated in Brazil on fraud charges. The Brazilian and the U.S. legal systems, as well as a possible extradition, could slow any movement, according to sources familiar with standard practices related to prisoner exchanges.
Gilbert said Russia has also expressed interest in a deal that would secure the release of Russian citizen Vadim Krasikov, a convicted assassin serving a life sentence in Germany since 2019.
“It is not unheard of for other countries to get involved,” she said.
However, drawing a third country in to such an exchange could establish a dangerous precedent for the U.S., according to administration officials, who have also expressed doubt over Russia’s interest in Krasikov is genuine or another negotiating tactic.
Beyond the spying allegations and lack of trade options, Woodward said he believes Gershkovich’s prior reporting on Putin could work against him, delaying negotiations.
Woodward believes that Gershkovich’s “strong Russian background, linguistically and culturally” alongside his “hard-hitting reporting” on Russia definitely factored into the arrest.
“There’s a strong retaliatory aspect to this,” Woodward said. “I’m sure [Gershkovich] developed some good information and leads.”
So far, administration officials have declined to speculate on what exactly prompted Russian authorities to arrest Gershkovich, saying it is too soon to make an assessment.
Efforts to free Gershkovich are still in a nascent phase. The Biden administration has not yet formally classified the reporter as wrongfully detained, a designation that would transfer his case to the Office of the Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs—effectively, the U.S.’ chief hostage negotiator.
“In Evan’s case, we are working through the determination on wrongful detention, and there’s a process to do that, and it is something that we are working through very deliberately but expeditiously as well,” Blinken said during a press briefing on Wednesday. “And I’ll let that process play out. In my own mind, there’s no doubt that he’s being wrongfully detained by Russia.”
National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby did not say whether the U.S. would consider a prisoner swap for Gershkovich on Thursday.
“We’re doing what we can to keep his employer and family informed. Our focus is squarely on that right now,” he said.
American diplomats in Moscow are also still working to gain access to Gershkovich, but have made little progress despite interventions from the Blinken and the U.S. ambassador to Moscow on his behalf, a senior State Department official told ABC News.
ABC’s Cindy Smith, Ellie Kaufman, and Tanya Stukalova contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Police in Australia have urgently appealed to the public to help find a man who allegedly took a platypus from its natural environment and onto a train where he showed it off to fellow commuters.
The incident occurred on Tuesday morning at approximately 11 a.m. local time when surveillance cameras caught a man and a friend boarding a train at Morayfiled Station in Queensland, Australia, with a platypus wrapped in a towel, according to Queensland Police.
Authorities say the man holding the platypus was “patting it and showing it to fellow commuters” while they made their way toward the town of Caboolture. It is believed the man came across the animal somewhere in the Moreton district of Queensland and that he stole it from its natural environment.
“The animal may become sick, be diseased or die the longer is it out of the wild and should not be fed or introduced to a new environment,” Queensland Police said. “It may also have venomous spurs which can cause significant injury to people and animals.”
Officials from Queensland Police and Australia’s Department of Environment and Science made a joint appeal to the public for the animal’s surrender to a veterinarian’s office or police station as soon as possible.
“The animal’s timely surrender will ensure its welfare,” Queensland Police said in their statement. “The unlawful take and keep of a Platypus from the wild is a Class 1 offence under section 88 of the Nature Conservation Act 1992, that carries a maximum penalty of $431,250.”
The platypus’s conservation status is officially listed as “Near Threatened” both in Australia and internationally and it is believed that only 30,000 to 300,000 live in Australia, according to the Australian Platypus Conservancy.
The platypus — along with the echidna — are the only mammals in the world that that lay eggs, according to the World Wildlife Fund. The water-loving monotreme usually live alone in burrows they build by the banks of creeks, rivers or ponds and survive by eating shrimp, swimming beetles, water bugs and tadpoles.
Male platypuses are venomous and have a hollow spur on each hind leg connected to a venom secreting gland, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
While their venom is lethal, however, there have been no recorded deaths from platypuses or platypus stings.
(WASHINGTON) — Nearly a week after Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia, former Gov. Bill Richardson, an expert on political prisoner negotiations, called the journalist’s detention “unacceptable” and spoke about what it may take to free Gershkovich and other Americans detained abroad.
“We’re working on cases in Russia with other Americans that don’t have the celebrity status of Brittney Griner. But what is needed is a Brittney Griner-type campaign that involves the public, that involves international issues. That involves putting pressure on the Russians and our administration to get this done,” Richardson told ABC News.
Griner is a basketball star who was arrested in Russia and detained for 10 months last year before her release in December 2022. Griner was released in a prisoner exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was detained in the U.S.
Richardson and his namesake center work on behalf of families of political prisoners and hostages in foreign countries. Last week, the Richardson Center helped secure the release of Navy veteran James Frisvold, who was held in Guerrero, Mexico, for 13 years in “de-facto pretrial detention for a crime he did not commit,” the organization said in a news release.
The Richardson Center only gets involved in such cases if the prisoner’s family reaches out to them and requests it, which Gershkovich’s family hasn’t done, Richardson said.
“My foundation works for families at no cost to them, but we don’t want to interfere, and it has to be their request. We work with the [White House] administration, too, but they don’t tell me what to do, but we coordinate with them. So it has to be an overall effort,” Richardson said.
Gershkovich was detained last week in the Russian city of Ekaterinburg on suspicion of espionage. Russia’s Federal Security Service has accused the reporter of spying and collecting “state secrets” — which the White House has called “ridiculous.”
The Wall Street Journal said in a statement it “vehemently denies” the allegations against Gershkovich. More than three dozen of the world’s top media organizations called for Gerskhovich’s release in a letter to Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States.
When asked why he believes Gershkovich is being held, Richardson pointed to the “deterioration” of U.S.-Russia relations. He also views the arrest as a “tit for tat” after the U.S. Justice Department charged Russian national Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov with spying for Russia under the guise of a Brazilian graduate student. The third reason, Richardson said, is that Russia views the case as an “espionage issue.”
“Evan is not a spy. He’s a journalist doing this job. But the Russians have increased level of confrontation with this arrest, and we have to deal with this at the highest level,” Richardson said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Sunday to his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and urged for Gershkovich’s “immediate release,” the State Department said.
Richardson, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Bill Clinton, called for an “international effort,” in Gershkovich’s case, because the issue is not limited to American journalists. “Journalists across the world are being detained,” he said.
Richardson was also involved with recent efforts to bring home WNBA star Brittney Griner and U.S. Marine Trevor Reed.
“The Russians don’t give up anything for free. They want prisoner exchanges. They want Russians in America that are detained,” Richardson said.
There are about 70 wrongfully detained Americans around the world, Richardson said.
Gershkovich has pleaded not guilty to the spying charges. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden pose for an official photo with Queen Elizabeth II in the Grand Corridor of Windsor Castle on Sunday, June 13, 2021, in Windsor, England. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
(WASHINGTON) — First lady Jill Biden will represent the United States next month in London at the coronation of King Charles III — and while President Joe Biden won’t attend, history shows that it’s not a snub of the new monarch.
Since the nation’s founding on independence from the U.K., no American president has ever attended one of their royal coronations.
Joe Biden did speak with King Charles on Tuesday, according to the White House, and congratulated him on the upcoming event while “underscoring the strength of the relationship between our countries and the friendship between our peoples.”
The president also told the king that he wanted to meet with him in the United Kingdom “at a future date,” the White House said.
Separately, the White House announced on Wednesday that Joe Biden will travel to Ireland next week to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
The Bidens were last in London together for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September.
Charles is scheduled to be crowned on May 6 at Westminster Abbey in the commonwealth’s first such ceremony in 70 years. A host of other world leaders and dignitaries are expected to attend.
For the late queen’s coronation in June 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower sent a White House delegation in his place.
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Israeli police officers stormed a mosque in Jerusalem overnight, raising tensions during a high holiday and prompting clashes that continued into Wednesday morning.
Video from the scene released by the Israeli Police Force showed officers entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque, where worshipers were celebrating Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.
Israeli police said they’d entered the mosque to remove “masked and law-breaking youths,” who they accused of taking over the mosque “in a painful manner.” Police accused them of “disturbing and desecrating the order inside the mosque.”
Israeli officers fired rubber bullets and stun guns inside the compound, they said. Palestinian worshipers returned fire with fireworks. More than 350 were arrested after they’d barricaded themselves inside, police said.
“These hooligans harm, first of all, the mass of Muslims who come to pray in the mosque,” Israeli officials said in a statement.
At least 12 people were injured, along with an Israeli officer, officials said. Police released a video of people with zip-tied hands being marched away from the mosque in the early hours of Wednesday.
“We warn the occupation against crossing red lines at holy sites, which will lead to a big explosion,”Nabil Abu Rudeineh, deputy prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority, said in a statement.
In the hours after the raid began, clashes erupted throughout the region. About nine rockets were launched, Israel Defense Forces said.
Four rockets from Gaza Strip were detected as they traveled into Israel, officials said, adding that they’d been intercepted. Another four landed in “open areas,” they said.
“In response to rocket fire from Gaza into Israel earlier, the IDF struck weapon manufacturing sites and a storage site belonging to Hamas, in addition to a military compound used for training terrorist operatives,” security officials said. “IDF tanks also struck military posts along the security fence.”
The Jordanian foreign minister in a statement condemned in the “strongest terms the Israeli occupation police storming the blessed mosque.”
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, William Gretsky, Bruno Nota, Kerem Inal and Nassar Atta contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — More than a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, the countries are fighting for control of areas in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian troops have liberated nearly 30,000 square miles of their territory from Russian forces since the invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022, but Putin appeared to be preparing for a long and bloody war.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 04, 3:35 PM EDT
US ‘working diligently’ to get WSJ reporter consular access: White House
The U.S. is continuing to push for consular access for Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter detained in Russia, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a briefing Tuesday, adding that “this is a priority” for President Joe Biden.
Asked how worrying it was the U.S. still didn’t have consular access, Jean-Pierre said, “We’re concerned.”
“We’re taking this very seriously,” Jean-Pierre said, pointing to Secretary Antony Blinken’s conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov over the weekend. “We’re working diligently, very hard to get a counselor to Evan.”
Jean-Pierre declined to say whether the U.S. was close to determining that Gershkovich was being “wrongfully detained” or provide a timeline of when that determination may happen, saying the State Department’s process “is currently ongoing.” That classification would allow the federal government to use more resources to try to free him.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
Apr 04, 12:05 PM EDT
US announces $2.6B in new security aid for Ukraine
The Pentagon announced $2.6 billion in new security assistance for Ukraine on Tuesday.
The aid will come in two forms: a $500 million presidential drawdown authority package pulling from existing U.S. stockpiles (the 35th such package for Ukraine); and $2.1 billion from Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds to procure new equipment.
Both the PDA and USAI packages are largely focused on providing munitions for Ukraine, including additional Patriot air-defense missiles and HIMARS ammunition. They also include anti-drone weapons, vehicles, communications equipment, spare parts and more.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Apr 03, 10:21 PM EDT
At least 501 children killed, almost 1,000 injured since February 2022: UNICEF chief
At least 501 children have been killed and almost 1,000 others injured since February 2022, Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF, tweeted Monday.
“Another tragic milestone for Ukraine’s children and families,” she wrote, adding: “This is just the UN verified number. The real figure is likely far higher, and the toll on families affected is unimaginable.”
Apr 03, 1:45 PM EDT
Russia to arrest anyone who supports ICC warrant for Putin
The Russian State Duma will arrest anyone who agrees with the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin accusing him of committing war crimes, the State Duma said on its official Telegram channel Monday.
Russia will imprison those who “call for the implementation of the decision” of the International Criminal Court “on the arrest of Vladimir Putin accused of war crimes,” the State Duma of the Russian Federation said.
“The profile committees of the State Duma are preparing amendments to the Federal Law ‘On Security,’ which will prohibit the activities of the International Criminal Court and international bodies directed against the Russian Federation on our territory and its citizens,” Chairman of State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin said.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes in March, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.
-ABC News’ Oleksiy Pshemyskiy
Apr 03, 5:11 AM EDT
Suspect arrested in St. Petersburg explosion, report says
A suspect in a St. Petersburg cafe blast that killed a Russian military blogger on Sunday has been arrested, Inferfax reported.
The Russian Investigative Committee said on Telegram that Darya Trepova was arrested on suspicion of involvement, the Russian wire service reported.
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti
Apr 02, 5:21 PM EDT
Russia to move tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus’ western border
Russia plans to move tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus to the country’s western borders, Boris Gryzlov, the Russian ambassador to Belarus, said Sunday.
Gryzlov’s announcement comes just three days after Russia and the United States clashed in the United Nations over the Kremlin’s plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. U.S. officials denounced the move as a desperate attempt by Russia to avoid military defeat and “threaten the world with nuclear apocalypse.”
Gryzlov said in an address aired on the Belarusian STV channel that tactical nuclear weapons “will be moved to the western borders of our Union State and will increase the possibilities for ensuring our security.”
The western border of Belarus is shared by Poland, a NATO country supporting Ukraine. Russian forces have used Belarus as a staging ground for the war in Ukraine.
“This will be done despite the noise in Europe and the United States,” Gryzlov said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the decision and slammed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, saying he “no longer decides which weapons are on his territory.”
“And does (Vladimir) Putin threaten the world? Of course, if Ukraine does not resist, it will fall, Putin will move on, we have emphasized this many times,” Zelenskyy said. “With the help of our friends and partners, our army will stand firm and win what is rightfully ours. Victory and our independence.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned a Russian missile strike on Sunday in the eastern Ukraine city of Kostiantynivka that killed six people and injured at least 11.
In an address to his country Sunday night, Zelenskyy called Russia an “evil state” for targeting residential buildings in Kostiantynivka with long-range missiles.
“The evil state must be defeated,” Zelenskyy said.
Kostiantynivka, which is close to Bakhmut, is being used as a second-line staging area for Ukrainian troops holding the line on that part of the front.
Zelenskyy said the fighting in Bakhmut was “especially hot” on Sunday.
He predicted a day would come when Ukraine will “celebrate the last Russians being killed or driven out of currently Russian occupied territories, including Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson Oblasts, as well as Crimea.”
A top Russian pro-war blogger has been killed in a bomb attack on a cafe in Russia, according to police.
The explosion on Sunday tore through a cafe in St. Petersburg, killing Vladlen Tatarsky, one of the best-known of the Russian military bloggers who have become influential during the war in Ukraine.
At least 30 other people were injured in the blast, according to the Ministry of Health. Video circulating online appeared to capture the aftermath, showing bloodied people emerging from the heavily damaged cafe.
The Russian Interior Ministry said an explosion has occurred in a cafe on the city’s Universitetskaya Embankment.
“One person was killed in the incident, it was military correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky, the Russian Interior Ministry press center told reporters on Sunday.
Denis Pushilin, acting head of the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic, issued a statement describing Tatarsky as “a great patriot” of the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine and Russia. Pushilin blamed the attack on the Kyiv regime, calling it a terrorist regime.
“A man with a difficult fate, Vladlen earned the respect of his comrades-in-arms because he lived and worked for the sake of truth and justice, for the sake of victory,” Pushilin said of Tatarsky. “He managed to fight, and in the status of a military correspondent to make his contribution.”
Pushilin said Tatarsky was to be awarded a medal “for the liberation of Mariupol” in eastern Ukraine.
It was the most serious bomb attack on a pro-war Russian figure inside Russia since the high-profile assassination of the Daria Dugina, the daughter of the ultra-nationalist Alexander Dugina, who was killed in a car bombing last year.
Tatarsky was a Russian ultra-nationalist and one of the best-known military bloggers, who strongly supported the war in Ukraine. He had also criticized the execution of the war by Russia’s military command.
Tatarsky had become a significant source of information for how the war was being fought on the Russian side.
His killing will likely set off speculation on whether Ukraine or Russia was behind his killing, similar to the Dugina episode.
In the Dugina case, U.S. intelligence sources eventually told The New York Times that Ukraine was behind the attack.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned a Russian missile strike on Sunday in the eastern Ukraine city of Kostiantynivka that killed six people and injured at least 11.
In an address to his country Sunday night, Zelenskyy called Russia an “evil state” for targeting residential buildings in Kostiantynivka with long-range missiles.
“The evil state must be defeated,” Zelenskyy said.
Kostiantynivka, which is close to Bakhmut, is being used as a second-line staging area for Ukrainian troops holding the line on that part of the front.
Zelenskyy said the fighting in Bakhmut was “especially hot” on Sunday.
He predicted a day would come when Ukraine will “celebrate the last Russians being killed or driven out of currently Russian occupied territories, including Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson Oblasts, as well as Crimea.”
A top Russian pro-war blogger has been killed in a bomb attack on a cafe in Russia, according to police.
The explosion on Sunday tore through a cafe in St. Petersburg, killing Vadim Tatarsky, one of the best-known of the Russian military bloggers who have become influential during the war in Ukraine.
At least 16 other people were injured in the blast, according to Russian police. Video circulating online appeared to capture the aftermath, showing bloodied people emerging from the heavily damaged cafe.
The Russian Interior Ministry said an explosion has occurred in a cafe on the city’s Universitetskaya Embankment.
“One person was killed in the incident, it was military correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky. Sixteen people were injured and are being examined by medics,” the Russian Interior Ministry press center told reporters on Sunday.
It was the most serious bomb attack on a pro-war Russian figure inside Russia since the high-profile assassination of the Daria Dugina, the daughter of the ultra-nationalist Alexander Dugina, who was killed in a car bombing last year.
Tatarsky was a Russian ultra-nationalist and one of the best-known military bloggers, who strongly supported the war in Ukraine. He had also criticized the execution of the war by Russia’s military command.
Tatarsky had become a significant source of information for how the war was being fought on the Russian side.
His killing will likely set off speculation on whether Ukraine or Russia was behind his killing, similar to the Dugina episode.
In the Dugina case, U.S. intelligence sources eventually told The New York Times that Ukraine was behind the attack.
At least six civilians were killed and eight others were injured Sunday when Russian missiles slammed into houses and apartment buildings in an eastern Ukrainian city, Ukrainian officials said.
The attack occurred in downtown Kostiantynivka, a city in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the site of the war’s fiercest fighting.
Andriy Yermak, deputy head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, said at least six people were killed in the attack.
Three Russian S-300 long-range missiles and four other rockets hit homes and apartment buildings in Kostiantynivka, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the regional governor.
Kostiantynivka is about eight miles west of the embattled town of Bakhmut, currently the main hotspot of the war.
-ABC News’ Tatiana Rymarenko
Apr 02, 11:33 AM EDT
Blinken speaks to Russian counterpart about arrested US journalist
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the Kremlin to release imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in a phone call Sunday with his Russian counterpart, according to a State Department spokesperson.
Blinken spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, conveying the United States’ “grave concern” over the “unacceptable detention” of a U.S. citizen, according to Vedant Patel, a deputy spokesperson for the State Department.
“The secretary called for his immediate release. Secretary Blinken further urged the Kremlin to immediately release wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan,” said Patel, referring to the American held in Russia on espionage charges since 2018.
According to a read out of the phone call released by the Kremlin, Lavrov emphasized that Gershkovich “was taken red-handed while trying to obtain classified information, collecting data constituting a state secret under the guise of journalistic status.”
“In the light of the established facts of illegal activity of a U.S. citizen, of whose detention the U.S. Embassy in Moscow was notified in accordance with the established procedure, his further fate will be determined by the court,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
The Kremlin said that during the conversation, Lavrov emphasized officials in Washington and the Western media are “escalating the hype with the clear intention of giving this case a political coloring.”
Blinken and Lavrov also spoke of the “importance of creating an environment that permits diplomatic missions to carry out their work,” according to Patel.
Apr 02, 9:27 AM EDT
World media groups demand Kremlin release Wall Street Journal reporter
More than three dozen of the world’s top news media organizations are calling on Russia to release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
The news groups joined the Wall Street Journal and the Committee to Protect Journalists, in penning a letter to Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, writing Gershkovich’s “is a journalist, not a spy.” The media organizations — including the Associated Press, New York Times, the Washington Post and The Times of London — wrote that Kershkovich’s “unwarranted and unjust arrest” represents “a significant escalation” of anti-press actions by the Russian government.
“Russia is sending the message that journalism within your borders is criminalized and that foreign correspondents seeking to report from Russia do not enjoy the benefits of the rule of law,” the letter reads.
The media groups urged Russia to immediately give Gershkovich access to a lawyer hired by the Wall Street Journal and allow him to communicate with his family.
The Kremlin has yet to publicly respond to the letter.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Mar 31, 1:09 PM EDT
Finland set to join NATO in ‘coming days,’ Stoltenberg says
Finland will formally join NATO in the “coming days,” after the country was able to clear its final hurdle, according to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“Their membership will make Finland safer and NATO stronger. Finland has highly capable forces, advanced capabilities and strong democratic institutions. So Finland will bring a lot to our alliance,” Stoltenberg said in a statement Friday.
Turkey was the last of the 30 NATO allies to approve Finland’s bid to join the alliance.
Mar 30, 4:22 PM EDT
6 missiles fired at Kharkiv
Russia just struck Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine with multiple missiles, Ukrainian officials said Thursday night.
Local officials in Kharkiv said Russia fired six Soviet-era S-300 surface-to-air missiles.
ABC News reporters heard explosions outside the city center and saw Ukrainian air defense active just before and during the attacks.
There are currently no reports of casualties or damage to infrastructure as a result of the strikes in Ukraine’s second-largest city.
There are also reports of Russian strikes in the Dnipro region.
-ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge
Mar 30, 1:37 PM EDT
Russia to enlist 147,000 soldiers in April
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Thursday ordering a spring conscription. Russia will call up 147,000 people to join the Russian Armed Forces from April 1 to April 15.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Mar 30, 11:10 AM EDT
Russia preparing to start another soldier recruitment, UK says
Russian media reporting suggests authorities are preparing to start a major military recruitment aiming to sign up an additional 400,000 troops, the United Kingdom’s Defense Ministry assessed.
Russia is presenting the campaign as a drive for volunteer, professional personnel, rather than a new, mandatory mobilization. There is a realistic possibility that in practice this distinction will be blurred, and that regional authorities will try to meet their allocated recruitment targets by coercing men to join up, UK officials said.
Russian authorities have likely selected a supposedly ‘volunteer model’ to meet their personnel shortfall in order to minimize domestic dissent. It is highly unlikely that the campaign will attract 400,000 genuine volunteers, according to UK officials.
However, rebuilding Russia’s combat power in Ukraine will require more than just personnel; Russia needs more munitions and military equipment supplies than it currently has available, UK officials said.
Mar 30, 6:22 AM EDT WSJ ‘vehemently denies’ spying allegation against reporter
The Wall Street Journal said on Thursday that it “vehemently denies” the spying allegations brought by Russia’s intelligence service against its reporter.
“The Wall Street Journal vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter, Evan Gershkovich,” a spokesperson for the WSJ said in a statement to ABC News. “We stand in solidarity with Evan and his family.”
Mar 30, 4:24 AM EDT WSJ reporter detained in Russia on spying charge
Russia’s FSB intelligence agency said on Thursday it had detained a journalist working for The Wall Street Journal on spying charges.
Russian state media cited an FSB statement saying Evan Gershkovich was detained in Ekaterinburg, a city in central Russia, and accusing him of collecting “state secrets” on an enterprise belonging to Russia’s military industrial complex on behalf of the United States.
A criminal case has been opened against him, the officials said.
“It is established that Evan Gershkovich, acting on the instruction of the American side, was collecting information consisting of state secrets, about the activity of one of the enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex. He was arrested in Ekaterinburg during an attempt to receive secret information,” Russian media said, quoting FSB officials.
Earlier reports from local media said that Gershkovich had been in Ekaterinburg reporting on the Wagner private military company.
Gershkovich is a reporter for the WSJ covering Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union. He previously reported for Agence France-Presse and The Moscow Times, according to his WSJ profile. He also served as a news assistant at The New York Times.
Mar 28, 4:45 PM EDT
US will support special tribunal to try ‘crime of aggression’ against Russia
The U.S. will support the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute top Kremlin officials for Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine, State Department officials said Tuesday, marking a significant shift for the Biden administration and a notable step toward outlining what accountability on the international stage might look like after the conflict.
A department spokesperson said the administration envisioned the tribunal would take the form of an international court that is “rooted in Ukraine’s judicial system” but ideally located in another European country.
The spokesperson added that such a mechanism would work to “facilitate broader international support and demonstrate Ukraine’s leadership in ensuring accountability for the crime of aggression” as well as “maximize the chances of achieving meaningful accountability for the crime of aggression.”
Ukraine and other Western countries have long called for a special tribunal, but until now, the U.S. has not publicly declared if it would support the creation of a new structure.
Mar 27, 12:21 PM EDT
Two dead, 29 hurt in Russian missile strike on Sloviansk
At least two people were killed and 29 were injured Monday morning when a pair of long-range Russian missiles slammed into buildings in a city in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said.
The two S-300 Russian missiles hit administrative and office buildings, and private homes in Sloviansk, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the regional governor.
Sloviansk is in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, where heavy fighting has been waged since the start of the war.
The missiles struck the city around 10:30 a.m. local time, Kyrylenko said.
He said the town of Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region was also targeted in Monday’s missile attacks. Kyrylenko said a Russian missile “almost completely destroyed” an orphanage in Druzhkivka, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
“Another day that began with terrorism by the Russian Federation,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine “will not forgive the torturing of our people.”
“All Russian terrorists will be defeated,” Zelenskyy said. “Everyone involved in this aggression will be held to account.”
Mar 26, 1:47 PM EDT
Ukrainian drone injures 3 inside Russia
Three people were injured in an explosion in the Kireevsky district of the Tula region on Sunday, Yekaterina Makarova, press secretary of the region’s Ministry of Health, told Interfax.
Russian authorities and law enforcement agencies said a Ukrainian drone with ammunition caused the explosion in the town far from the two countries’ border.
Kireevsk is about 180 miles from the border with Ukraine and 110 miles south of Moscow.
The Russian state-run news agency Tass reported authorities identified the drone as a Ukrainian Tu-141. The Latvia-based Russian news outlet Meduza reported that the blast left a crater about 50 feet in diameter and 16 feet deep.
(LONDON) — A Russian prison monitor says he has visited Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in the Moscow jail where he is being held after being seized on spying charges last week.
Alexey Melnikov, who heads the Public Oversight Commission, told ABC News he visited Gershkovich in Lefortovo prison late Sunday evening and spoke for around 45 minutes with the American reporter, who he said was in good spirits.
“On the whole he was in a cheerful mood, you could say. We even joked a little,” Melnikov told ABC News, saying he thought it was perhaps a “self-defense reaction,” which can be quite common for people who are detained.
“He behaved himself entirely normally. He wasn’t in a depressed state, he was quite cheerful.”
Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, arrested Gershkovich last Wednesday, while he was on a reporting trip 800 miles from Moscow in Yekaterinburg, and accused him of collecting classified information on behalf of the United States. The Wall Street Journal has “vehemently” denied the charges and most experts believe Russia has taken Gershkovich as a hostage amid tensions with the United States.
The U.S. government, as well as dozens of leading international news organisations have called the charges false and demanded Russia immediately release Gershkovich, who faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Gershkovich, 31, is currently awaiting trial in Lefortovo, a former KGB prison known for holding high-profile prisoners. He pleaded not guilty in a closed court hearing on Thursday, where his lawyer and media were not allowed in.
Russia has not permitted U.S. diplomats or Gershkovich’s lawyer to visit him since his arrest. WSJ Editor in Chief Emma Tucker said on Sunday no one from the newspaper or the U.S. government had been able to communicate with Gershkovich, but she said she was hopeful his lawyer would be able to this week.
Melnikov, whose commission is authorised by Russian law to inspect prison conditions, said that Gershkovich’s detention in Lefortovo so far followed standard practice and said he had not complained of any mistreatment by guards.
He said Gershkovich was currently alone in a two-man cell during a “quarantine” period, but that once he had tested negative for coronavirus he might receive a cellmate this week. According to Melnikov, the cell has a TV with 20-30 Russian channels, a radio and a kettle. He was being fed soup and porridge, Melnikov said, and was permitted to shower once a week.
“He can watch TV, he can read. He can listen to the radio. He has walks,” Melnikov said. Gershkovich should also be allowed to write and receive letters, he said, as long as they are written in Russian.
Gershkovich had joked that it was a pity the television didn’t have the sports channel, Match TV premier, because there was a soccer match Sunday he would have liked to watch, Melnikov said.
He said, Gershkovich is currently reading Life and Fate, the classic novel by Soviet war reporter Vasily Grossman describing the battle between Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany during World War II.
Gershkovich told him the jail “corresponded to his expectations,” Melnikov said.
Melnikov said his commission is strictly limited to discussing prison conditions and so was unable to ask Gershkovich about the charges against him.
Lefortovo is exceptionally strict, Melnikov said, which meant it can be isolating but that it lacked the chaotic violence common in other Russian jails. Unsanctioned communication with the outside world is impossible, he said.
Melnikov is secretary of the Public Oversight Commission, which is a semi-state body set up to monitor conditions in jails. He is also a member of the Russian presidential human rights council, which has been criticised as toothless and stacked with Kremlin loyalists.
Melnikov said when he visited on Sunday Gershkovich’s lawyer had not been granted access to him.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, on Sunday to demand Gershkovich’s immediate release, calling his detention unacceptable.
Blinken also called for the release of Paul Whelan, the former U.S. Marine imprisoned by Russia since 2018 on espionage charges the U.S. and his family say are false.
Experts believe Gershkovich’s case resembles Whelan’s and those of other Americans seized by the Kremlin in recent years as bargaining chips, including WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Trevor Reed. Griner and Reed were released in separate prisoner swaps over the past 12 months, in exchange for Russians held in U.S. prisons.
Griner over the weekend called for Gershkovich’s release and urged her supporters to “encourage the administration to continue to use every tool possible to bring Evan and all Americans home.”
“Our hearts are filled with great concern for Evan Gershkovitch [sic] and his family,” Griner wrote in a statement on Instagram, also expressing gratitude for the “Biden administration’s deep commitment to rescue Americans.”
Gershkovich, whose parents are Jewish emigres from the Soviet Union who moved to the U.S. in 1979, grew up speaking Russian in Princeton, New Jersey. He has worked in Russia since 2017, writing for Agence France-Presse and the Moscow Times, before joining the WSJ just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“He said he felt privileged to be able to report from inside the country when many of our Russian colleagues and friends had to flee,” Pjotr Sauer, a Guardian correspondent covering Russia and close friend of Gershkovich wrote in an op-ed this week.
“For years, Evan did everything he could to tell the story of modern Russia. It is now our turn to keep the light shining on him. I want to have my friend back.”
(TAMPA, Fla.) — U.S. forces killed an “ISIS senior leader” in a strike in northwest Syria on Monday, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).
The military identified the leader as Khalid ‘Aydd Ahmad Al-Jabouri, who it said was responsible for planning attacks into Europe and Turkey, and developing ISIS’s leadership network.
“The death of Khalid ‘Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri will temporarily disrupt the organization’s ability to plot external attacks,” a release from CENTCOM said.
But ISIS still poses a serious threat, according to CENTCOM Commander Gen. Erik Kurilla.
“Though degraded, the group remains able to conduct operations within the region with a desire to strike beyond the Middle East,” Kurilla said in a statement.
The U.S. has roughly 900 troops in Syria as part of its effort to defeat ISIS in the region. In recent years American forces have killed or captured several ISIS leaders in the country.
In early February, President Joe Biden approved a daring ground raid in northeast Syria that killed the global leader of ISIS, known as Haji Abdullah. On Feb. 16, four U.S. troops and a service dog were injured in another raid when their target, a senior Islamic State group leader who was killed in the operation, set off an explosion, according to officials.
While U.S. forces are primarily in Syria to fight ISIS, they are also under near-constant attack by what the Pentagon calls Iran-backed militant groups. Late last month attacks by these groups killed one American contractor, injured another, and wounded at least 12 service members, according to defense officials. There have been close to 80 such attacks on bases housing U.S. forces in Syria since 2021, according to Kurilla.
