Russian opposition politician Yevgeny Roizman was shown being detained at his home in a video published on social media on Wednesday. Video of the arrest showed Roizman, former mayor of the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, being taken away by law enforcement officials. Roizman was seen in the video telling reporters that he was being investigated under a law against discrediting the armed forces. He said he was being arrested “basically for one phrase, ‘the invasion of Ukraine’”.
Pope Francis has called for “concrete steps” to end the war in Ukraine and avert the risk of a nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia power plant, reports Reuters. IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, said on Tuesday it would visit the Russian-occupied plant in Ukraine within days if talks to gain access succeed. Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of firing at the facility, the largest of its kind in Europe and which pro-Moscow forces took over soon after the 24 February invasion. The United Nations has called for the area to be demilitarised.
A Russian-installed head of the town of Mykhailivka in the Russian-controlled part of the Zaporizhzhia region in south-eastern Ukraine was killed in a car bomb on Tuesday, an official said. Ivan Sushko was critically injured when a bomb placed under his car exploded, Zaporizhzhia region administration member Vladimir Rogov said on Telegram.
