Russia or its backers likely behind classified military leak, US officals reportedly say; WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich charged with espionage in Russia but denies accusation
Russia or pro-Russian elements are likely behind the leak of several classified US military documents posted on social media, three US officials told Reuters. The unnamed officials said the documents provided a partial, month-old snapshot of the war and appear to have been doctored to play down Russian losses, according to Reuters. The New York Times earlier reported the documents provided details of US and Nato plans to help prepare Ukraine for a spring offensive against Russia. The US Justice Department said it had begun a probe into the leak.
Three civilians were killed and 17 wounded over the past 24 hours in Russian artillery, missile and aerial attacks on 114 settlements in nine regions, the Ukrainian defence ministry said on Friday. Authorities in Russian-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine said seven civilians were killed on Thursday in two Ukrainian artillery strikes. Both sides deny targeting civilians.
Russian Federal Security Service investigators formally charged Evan Gershkovich with espionage but the Wall Street Journal reporter denied the charges and said he was working as a journalist, Russian news agencies reported on Friday. Gershkovich is the first American journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the cold war.
The Ukrainian military said it had downed a Russian Su-25 ground attack jet near Marinka. A video showed a big explosion as the plane slammed into the ground, with its pilot descending on a parachute. The Russian military did not confirm the plane’s downing, AP reported.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has threatened to abandon a landmark grain deal with Ukraine if obstacles to Moscow’s exports remained. The agreement last July allows Ukraine to export grain through a safe corridor in the Black Sea. “If there is no further progress in removing barriers to the export of Russian fertilisers and grain, we will think about whether this deal is necessary,” Lavrov told a news conference in Ankara alongside his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, on Friday.
Ukraine can resume exporting electricity after a six-month gap, given the success of repairs carried out after repeated Russian attacks, the energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, said on Friday. Last October, Ukraine halted exports of electricity to the European Union – its main export market for energy since the war began – following Russia strikes on energy infrastructure. “The most difficult winter has passed,” Halushchenko said.
Ukraine has said Russia is concentrating all its efforts on capturing the eastern city of Bakhmut, where it described the situation as “difficult” but said it was holding out. The UK Ministry of Defence said earlier that Russian forces had “highly likely” advanced into Bakhmut’s town centre and seized the west bank of the Bakhmutka River, severely threatening Ukraine’s key supply route to the west.
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday criticised Russia’s treatment of the Muslim-minority Tatar community in Kremlin-controlled Crimea and vowed to recapture the peninsula from Russia during a first official state iftar. Speaking outside the centre of the capital, Zelenskiy announced Ukraine was beginning a new tradition of hosting an official iftar, the meal breaking the daily fast during the month of Ramadan.
Reuters and Agence-France Presse contributed to this report
