The Russian security agency (FSB) announced on Monday that a former employee of the American consulate in Vladivostok was accused of collecting information related to the war in Ukraine and protests in Russia, on behalf of the United States.
A statement from the agency said that Robert Shonov had been collecting information since September 2022, including information on Russia’s military recruitment campaign.
In May, following the announcement of Mr. Shonov’s arrest, the US State Department condemned the act, saying that the charges against him were “completely baseless”.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement that Mr. Shonov worked at the consulate for more than 25 years before being hired by an outside agency that provided services to the US Embassy in Moscow.
“Mr. Shonov’s sole role at the time of his arrest was to compile media summaries of press articles, from publicly available Russian media sources,” Mr. Miller said. “His targeting underscores Russia’s blatant use of increasingly repressive laws against its own citizens,” he added.
Meanwhile, today the Ukrainian army announced Russian missile attacks during the night, while Moscow said that Kiev launched several drones aimed at Russian territory.
Ukraine’s military general staff said air defenses had managed to destroy four Russian missiles, but a civilian industrial facility had been hit in the Poltava region.
The chief of staff of the president of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, wrote on the Telegram social network that as a result of the attack in Poltava, two people had been killed in a vegetable oil factory.
Regional Governor Dmytro Lunin said that two other people were taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said on Monday that Ukrainian troops had liberated the town of Robotyne. The area has been the site of fighting in the Zaporizhia region, while Ukraine is trying to retake the territory as part of a months-long counteroffensive.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday it had shot down a Ukrainian drone in the Lyubertsy region, southeast of Moscow. As during other recent drone attacks near the Russian capital, flight operations at airports in the region were temporarily suspended.
Russia also reported that it had shot down two Ukrainian drones over the Bryansk region, on the border with Ukraine./ VOA
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