The release of WNBA star Brittney Griner from a Moscow-area prison is a priority of President Joe Biden, but it’s not a priority issue for Moscow, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday.
“In this tense situation, I think that he (Biden) is thinking first and foremost about the upcoming midterm elections,” said Yury Ushakov on state-run TV program “Moscow.Kremlin.Putin.” “He keeps emphasizing the need to bring (Griner) back home… However, it’s not the main issue that we are concerned about.”
Griner has been in Russian custody since her February arrest, days before Russia invaded Ukraine, at a Moscow-area airport on drug smuggling charges. She said she inadvertently packed cannabis oil in her luggage, pleaded guilty and was issued a nine-year prison sentence that her lawyers are appealing.
Efforts to arrange a swap to free her have been hampered by the historically poor relations between Russia. Biden has said he would be willing to discuss Griner’s case with Putin at next month’s Group of 20 meeting in Indonesia.
Other developments:
► France pledged air defense missiles to protect Ukrainian cities against drone strikes, and an expanded training program for Ukrainian soldiers. The French defense ministry said up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers will be embedded with military units in France.
►Four more vessels carrying 140,000 metric tons of agricultural products left Odesa for countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, the Infrastructure Ministry announced.
►Russia’s bombings of civilian targets have killed 423 Ukrainian children and injured 810 since February, Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office reported.
BRITTNEY GRINER:WNBA star worried she may not be released from Russian prison, lawyer says
Putin says no need for big strikes, but Brits say Russia running low on missiles
After several days of retaliatory missile strikes pounding cities across Ukraine, Putin said Friday that the bulk of targets had been hit and there was no need for additional massive strikes. The British Defense Ministry, however, suggests the real reason for any slowdown in bombing is a problem with inventory. And the assessment also noted that about half the missiles were shot down by Ukraine defenses.
“Russia’s defense industry is probably incapable of producing advanced munitions at the rate they are being expended,” the ministry said in its assessment of the war. The latest barrages “represent a further degradation of Russia’s long-range missile stocks, which is likely to constrain their ability to strike the volume of targets they desire in future.”
U.S.-based think tank accused Russia of ‘ethnic cleansing campaign’
Russia is conducting massive, forced deportations of Ukrainians that likely amount to a “deliberate ethnic cleansing campaign,” the Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War reports. The institute’s assessment says Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said Friday that thousands of children from Kherson region are “already in other regions of Russia, resting in rest homes and children’s camps.”
The assessment says Russian authorities have admitted to placing children from occupied areas of Ukraine up for adoption with Russian families in a manner that may violate international genocide regulations.
11 Russians killed in attack at training ground near Ukraine
Two men entered a Russian military training ground near the Ukraine border and opened fire, killing 11 people and wounding 15 more before they were killed, the Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday. A military investigation of the shooting was underway, the department said on Telegram.
The ministry said said two men from an unnamed former Soviet republic fired on volunteer soldiers during target practice in the Belgorod region in southwestern Russia. The border region has been a gateway for Russian soldiers moving in and out of Ukraine, and Belgorod officials frequently accuse Ukrainian forces of bombings in the region.
Six people wounded in rocket attack near Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
At least six people were wounded in Russian rocket attacks near Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, where Russia has stationed troops, Ukrainian authorities said Sunday. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said two residents of Nikopol had been hospitalized following the strikes, which also damaged five power lines, gas pipelines and numerous civilian businesses and residential buildings.
Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of firing at and around the plant, which continues to be run by its pre-occupation Ukrainian staff under Russian oversight.
TURNING POINT?:As Russia retreates in some aeas, Ukraine regains land, confidence
Office of Russian-backed Donetsk mayor damaged in rocket attack
The municipal mayor’s office in separatist-controlled Donetsk was seriously damaged by a rocket attack Russian authorities blamed on Ukrainian forces. Plumes of smoke swirled around the building, which had rows of blown-out windows and a partially collapsed ceiling. Cars nearby were burned out. There were no immediate reports of casualties and Kyiv didn’t immediately claim responsibility. The Russian administration in Dontesk said the building was hit by a HIMAR rocket – the type supplied to Ukraine by the United States.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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