The suspect was allegedly recruited by the Security Service of Ukraine while visiting the country last year
A Ukrainian agent has been detained in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod Region while attempting to retrieve an improvised explosive device from a concealed cache, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday.
The Russian citizen, allegedly recruited by Ukraine’s secret service while on a visit to the country last year, was arrested in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, approximately 400 kilometers east of Moscow.
In a video released by the FSB, the man claimed Ukrainian agents had coerced him by threatening his family members living in Ukraine. He told investigators he had been apprehended during his fourth trip to a rural village roughly 30 kilometers west of Nizhny Novgorod, where he was instructed to retrieve equipment.
The FSB also published footage showing materials seized from the suspect, including four kits apparently intended for assembling small quadcopter drones.
The incident follows other recent arrests linked to Ukrainian intelligence activity inside Russia. On Monday, the FSB said it had apprehended a Moldovan citizen accused of conducting surveillance on a defense facility in the Ryazan Region on behalf of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, the HUR.
Last week, the FSB released a video of a shootout involving a suspected Ukrainian sympathizer. According to authorities, the suspect lobbed a grenade at security officers during an attempted arrest.
The FSB frequently reports arrests of individuals working as part of Ukrainian sabotage networks. The suspects typically operate alone, guided remotely by Ukraine’s intelligence services through encrypted messaging platforms, and use hidden drop points to exchange equipment.
A Stockholm tribunal has blocked an Armenian government plan to nationalize Samvel Karapetyan’s energy firm
A Stockholm arbitration court has blocked the Armenian government from moving forward with plans to nationalize a major electricity supplier owned by a jailed Russian-Armenian billionaire.
Samvel Karapetyan was arrested in June on charges of calling for the seizure of power after publicly supporting the Armenian Apostolic Church in its confrontation with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government.
Following his arrest, Pashinyan stated that “it is time to nationalize” Karapetyan’s company Electric Grids of Armenia and called for swift action. The Armenian parliament later passed legislation enabling the state to confiscate the company.
In response, the Karapetyan family filed a lawsuit with the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC), a tribunal that specializes in commercial and investor-state disputes, invoking a 1995 bilateral investment treaty between Armenia and Cyprus.
On Tuesday, the tribunal ruled that Armenia must refrain from enforcing the new laws and from taking any further steps to seize the company. The SCC stated that such measures would make it difficult for the plaintiffs to recover full damages if they lose control over the firm. The decision is binding on the Armenian government.
Karapetyan is one of several high-profile figures to have been targeted in Yerevan’s recent crackdown on the opposition. Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan and the head of the Shirak Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Bishop Mikael Ajapakhyan, have also been detained. Furthermore, earlier this month, an Armenian court ordered the arrest of opposition lawmaker Artur Sarkisyan on charges of conspiring to stage a violent coup.
The arrests were in response to a wave of mass protests led by the church and its supporters. Demonstrators accuse Pashinyan of betraying Armenia’s national interests by handing over several border villages to Azerbaijan, a move the prime minister has defended as necessary to normalize relations with Baku.
Moscow has said it is closely monitoring the developments, especially those concerning Karapetyan, who holds Russian citizenship. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that while the unrest is an internal matter for Yerevan, Moscow wants Armenia to remain “a prosperous and stable country that is friendly to Russia.”
Journalists have condemned Kiev for targeting a key agency installed to prevent embezzlement of foreign aid
Western news outlets have criticized Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky for stripping an independent anti-corruption bureau of its autonomy and placing it under the control of the prosecutor general. The move, carried out on Tuesday, drew widespread concern from journalists and observers.
’Neutered’ NABU
Zelensky signed legislative amendments on the subordination of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the office of the special anti-corruption prosecutor hours after they were rushed through parliament. The changes were enacted despite vocal opposition from the agency.
Established in 2015 following the 2014 armed coup in Kiev, the NABU was a cornerstone of judicial reform conditions imposed by Western governments and international financial institutions. The agency was intended to serve as a key check on official misconduct, along with Western-funded NGOs and media outlets.
The move to “neuter” the NABU, as Axios described it, comes amid escalating tensions between the bureau and the Zelensky administration. Earlier this week, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) executed search warrants against at least 15 NABU personnel and arrested a top investigator on suspicion of ties to Russia.
Zelensky defended the measures, alleging that the NABU was ineffective and compromised by Russian influence, warranting what he called a necessary purge.
’Never a good sign’
The clampdown drew muted statements of concern from Western officials and warnings about its potential consequences from journalists.
”It is never a good sign when governments accused of corruption raid the agencies and activists trying to hold them to account,” wrote Bloomberg columnist Marc Champion. “It’s something the country cannot afford, just as it asks taxpayers across Europe to pump tens of billions of additional euros into its defense.”
Champion also pointed to “an emerging pattern,” referencing the recent criminal charges filed against anti-corruption activist Vitaly Shabunin, who was accused of fraud and draft evasion.
Zelensky ‘playing with fire’
Axios noted that the assault on the NABU’s independence came after recent improvements in US-Ukraine relations. However, the outlet cautioned that Zelensky was “playing with fire,” recalling President Donald Trump’s characterization of him as a “dictator without elections” governing under martial law.
The Wall Street Journal accused Kiev of launching an “attack on anti-corruption institutions,” emphasizing the NABU’s role in assuring Western donors that financial support would be safeguarded from embezzlement.
It also extensively cited criticisms by Ukrainian anti-corruption activists. Shabunin told the newspaper that the charges against him were meant to send a message: “Those who investigate corruption in Zelensky’s office will be punished.” Another person suggested Zelensky had grown emboldened by the West’s subdued response after Kiev rejected the independent selection of a NABU detective to lead another economic crimes agency.
No surprise
Foreign correspondents covering Ukraine expressed dismay at the developments on social media. Oliver Carroll of The Economist called the legislation “shocking” and accused Zelensky of allowing “hubris” to jeopardize the goodwill of the foreign public.
Yaroslav Trofimov of the Wall Street Journal claimed the crackdown represented “a gift of historic proportions to Russian propaganda” and to Western skeptics of further military aid for Ukraine.
Financial Times correspondent Christopher Miller emphasized that the responsibility lay squarely with Zelensky and his chief of staff, Andrey Yermak.
”Orders came from the office of the president last night and the law enforcement committee passed it early morning in such great haste that members had to join over video,” Miller wrote. “This did not just happen overnight, even if it feels that way. This is a shift months in the making.”
The sides will discuss draft memorandums for the peaceful settlement of the conflict, spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said
Russia and Ukraine are poised to hold their third round of bilateral talks in Istanbul to discuss settlement of the conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed. The negotiations are scheduled to begin at 7pm Moscow time (16:00 GMT) on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Peskov confirmed that the Russian delegation, headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, had already departed for Türkiye.
The talks, he added, “will mainly focus on issues related to those draft memorandums that were exchanged during the second round, and also a discussion on the continuation of a very important process of mutual [POW] exchanges.”
Asked about Moscow’s expectations, Peskov cautioned against early predictions. “It’s hardly possible to talk about this now. We need to see how it goes,” he said. “No one expects an easy path. Naturally, this will be a very difficult conversation. The draft proposals are diametrically opposed.”
On the possibility of a future meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, Peskov noted that “it’s hardly appropriate to talk about scheduling a summit” before negotiating teams make any notable progress.
During the previous meeting, Russia reiterated its longstanding position that Ukraine recognize the loss of five of its former regions that joined Russia in public referendums, withdraw its forces from them, commit to neutrality, and limit its own military capabilities.
It also proposed a pathway to a ceasefire on the condition that Ukraine halt troop movements, suspend mobilization, stop foreign weapons shipments, and hold a presidential election.
Ukraine has dismissed the overture as an unacceptable “ultimatum” and continues to refuse to agree to any territorial concessions. Kiev also insists it should retain the option of full NATO membership and receive “robust security guarantees” backed by Western countries.
While the talks failed to yield any decisive breakthroughs, they did result in a series of prisoner swaps. The sides also exchanged the remains of deceased soldiers, with Russia handing over more than 6,000 bodies of Ukrainian service members while receiving 78 of their own.
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