Live: Russian authorities raid home of TV journalist who denounced Ukraine invasion

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Issued on: 10/08/2022 – 06:50Modified: 10/08/2022 – 12:01

Russian authorities on Wednesday raided the home of a former state TV journalist who quit after making an on-air protest against Moscow’s war in Ukraine and launched a criminal case against her on the charge of spreading false information about Russian armed forces, her lawyer said on social media. Follow our live updates for all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).  

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2:23pm: Russian authorities raid home of TV protester who denounced Ukraine invasion

Russian authorities on Wednesday raided the home of a former state TV journalist who quit after making an on-air protest against Moscow’s war in Ukraine, and launched a criminal case against her on the charge of spreading false information about the Russian armed forces, her lawyer said on social media.

The case against Marina Ovsyannikova was launched under a law, enacted after the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, that penalises statements against the military, lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov said. A conviction is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Zakhvatov told the independent news site Meduza that the case is likely linked to a protest Ovsyannikova staged last month, holding a banner that said “(Russian President Vladimir) Putin is a killer, his soldiers are fascists.”

He said on Telegram that after the raid Ovsyannikova is expected to be brought into the Investigative Committee for questioning.

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11:59am: Denmark to train Ukrainian soldiers

Denmark will send military instructors to Britain to help train Ukrainian soldiers and also offer to train Ukrainian officers on its soil, the Danish defence ministry said on Wednesday.

“Denmark will support a British-led training project with 130 Danish soldiers and at the same time offer to train Ukrainian soldiers in Denmark,” a ministry statement said.

The instructors will provide basic military training, including urban combat and tactical operations, to Ukrainian soldiers with zero to limited military experience.

Denmark has contributed to both British and Canadian training missions in Ukraine since 2015 and provided weapons and cyber security support to Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbour in February.

08:39am: Blasts at Crimea air base ‘a psychological setback for Russia’

Tuesday’s explosions at a Russian military base in Crimea – whether due to Russian incompetence or not – will undeniably deal a blow to Russian morale as images of the powerful blasts are now seeping back to Russia via social media. Videos posted online shows sunbathers on nearby beaches fleeing as huge flames and pillars of smoke rose over the horizon from multiple points.

“The word is of course getting back to Russia, despite the efforts of Russian television to try to calm people down and to persuade them that this is all Ukrainian propaganda,” FRANCE 24’s Chief Foreign Editor Rob Parsons explained. “There is no doubt that for Russian morale this is a bit of a blow.”


06:00

07:35am: Russia has ‘almost certainly’ established new major ground force, UK says

Russia has “almost certainly” established a major new ground forces formation to support its operations in Ukraine, Britain said on Tuesday.

The unit, called the 3rd Army Corps, is based out of the city of Mulino, east of Russia’s capital Moscow, the British Defence Ministry said in its daily intelligence bulletin on Twitter.

The update also added that Russian commanders continued to face “competing operational priorities” of reinforcing its offensive in the eastern Donbas region, as well as strengthening its defence against Ukrainian counterattacks in south.

07:05am: Russian shelling kills 13 in Dnipropetrovsk region

Russian shelling has killed 13 people in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region overnight, governor Valentyn Reznychenko said on Wednesday.

Reznychenko initially put the casualties at 21, with 11 killed in the district of Nikopol, near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant Zaporizhzhia, and 10 in the town of Marganets. But in a subsequent messages on the Telegram messaging app he revised the number, but without clarifying which initial details were incorrect.

The Zaporizhzhia plant was shelled over the weekend, prompting strong reactions from both the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) who warned of the dangers of a potential nuclear disaster. Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame over the attacks. 

2:18am: One killed in blasts at Russian air base in Crimea

Local authorities said one person was killed on Tuesday in blasts at a Russian air base in the annexed Crimean peninsula. Moscow said the explosions were detonations of stored ammunition, not the result of any attack.

Witnesses said they had heard at least 12 explosions around 3:20 p.m. local time (1220 GMT) on Tuesday from the Saky air base near Novofedorivka on the west coast of the peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 and used in February as one of the launchpads for its invasion.

1:05am: Russia says Crimea airbase blast was ammo detonation, not attack

Moscow insisted Tuesday that major blasts at a key military airbase on the Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula were caused by exploding ammunition rather than Ukrainian fire.

Dramatic amateur footage shared on social media appeared to show panicked holidaymakers fleeing a Crimean beach with young children, as ballooning clouds of grey smoke rose over the horizon.

The blasts rocked the Saki airfield on the 167th day of Moscow’s invasion.

12:44am: Zelensky aide: Ukraine not responsible for Crimea blasts

Ukraine is not taking responsibility for explosions at a Russian air base in Crimea on Tuesday, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky said, suggesting partisans might have been involved.

Mykhailo Podolyak, asked by the Dozhd online television channel whether Kyiv was taking responsibility, replied: “Of course not. What do we have to do with this?”

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)

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