Tension is very high between Russia and the United States over arms supplies to Ukraine, while the case of the Wall Street Journal journalist on trial in Moscow is also inflaming. The Russian military announced that it had destroyed three US-made Himars multiple-launch rocket launchers and the “foreign specialists” who operated them. This was reported by the Russian Ministry of Defense, as reported by Tass. “Operational-tactical aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles, missile troops and artillery of troop groups of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation destroyed three US-produced Himars multiple rocket launchers, as well as a transport vehicle -cargo and foreign specialists who ensured its use,” the ministry said, adding that the assembly shop and places of preparation for launching drones were also hit, as well as buildings for the regrouping of enemy troops and depots for military equipment in 109 districts.
Meanwhile, Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal journalist who has been in prison in Moscow for fifteen months, today appeared in court for the start of his trial in Yekaterinburg, where he was arrested on charges of espionage while he was doing a report for the newspaper American. This was reported by the BBC, which was one of the publications briefly admitted to the courtroom before the trial began behind closed doors. The 32-year-old American journalist smiled at the photographers, without saying anything, from the aquarium, as it is called in Russian courts a glass and metal cage in which the defendants are closed. Gershkovich was wearing jeans and a checked shirt and had a shaved head. After a few minutes the journalists were asked to leave. The prosecution claims that the American journalist was collecting classified information about a plant that produces tanks and that he was working for the CIA. The accusations are rejected as unfounded by Gershokovich, his newspaper and the American government which considers him illegally detained by Russia. If convicted, he risks 20 years in prison. The financial newspaper has condemned the trial that opened today against its reporter, underlining that the espionage charges against him are “invented”.
