Italian Weapons Cache Tied To Suspects Who Fought In Ukraine
Italian police are continuing their investigation into a far-right group found to have a large cache of weapons, including an air-to-air missile. The investigation centers on men who once fought in the pro-Russia separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow Court Extends Pretrial Detention Of 24 Ukrainian Sailors
By RFE/RL
A Moscow court has prolonged by three months the pretrial detention of 24 Ukrainian sailors detained by Russian forces along with their three naval vessels in November near the Kerch Strait, which links the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.
The Lefortovo district court ruled on July 17 that 13 of the sailors must stay in detention until October 24, while the remaining 11 will be held until October 26.
Russia has held the Ukrainian sailors since its forces fired on, boarded, and seized their vessels near the Kerch Strait on November 25.
Moscow claims the Ukrainian vessels illegally entered Russian territorial waters near Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia occupied and took over in 2014.
The sailors face up to six years in prison if convicted.
The United States and other Western countries have called for the Ukrainian sailors' release, calling their detainment illegal.
Russia moved swiftly to seize control over Crimea after Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was pushed from power in Kyiv by the pro-European Maidan protest movement in February 2014.
Putin's government sent troops without insignia to the peninsula, seized key buildings, took control of the regional legislature, and staged a referendum denounced as illegitimate by at least 100 countries.
Russia also fomented unrest and backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, where some 13,000 people have been killed in the ensuing conflict since April 2014.
With reporting by TASS and Interfax
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Putin Widens Citizenship Offer To All Residents Of Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk Regions
By RFE/RL's Russian Service
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree expanding the simplified procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship for all residents of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
The July 17 move comes after Putin, just days after Volodomyr Zelenskiy won Ukraine's presidential runoff on April 21, issued a decree to simplify the process for Ukrainian citizens in "certain areas" of the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions to get Russian citizenship.
Decried by Ukraine and the West as an attempt to undermine Ukrainian sovereignty, the move was seen as an effort to provoke Zelenskiy and undermine his electoral win.
Kyiv has declared Russian passports issued under this procedure illegal.
The expanded decree now allows all those who were permanent residents of the two regions in April 2014, when fighting began between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists, to benefit from a simplified procedure to get a Russian passport.
Some 13,000 people have been killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine over the past five years, according to estimates by the United Nations.
Putin has already widened the categories of people eligible for fast-track passports by adding Ukrainians who once lived in Ukraine's Crimea region before it was annexed by Russia in 2014, as well as citizens of Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan who were born in Russia during the Soviet era.
With reporting by Reuters
good thread: