???? Live: Russian opposition ex-mayor goes on trial after criticising Ukraine war

Issued on: 26/04/2023 – 09:34

9:55am: According to a Russian investigator, 11 people are on ‘international wanted list’ over Navalny case

A Russian investigator said that 11 people have been put on an “international wanted list” in a case related to jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny, TASS said on Wednesday.

9:17am: Russian opposition ex-mayor on trial over Ukraine criticism

Yevgeny Roizman, a prominent Kremlin critic and popular former mayor, went on trial on Wednesday over accusations of discrediting the Russian army over the Ukraine offensive.

In 2013, Roizman, 60, became Russia’s highest-profile opposition mayor and held the position in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg for five years. 

He is Russia’s last prominent opposition figure who is still in the country and not behind bars. 

Roizman, who openly denounces President Vladimir Putin and his offensive in Ukraine, has said he knows he could go to prison at any moment. He is a hugely popular figure in Yekaterinburg and beyond and a friend of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

9:06am: Russian military aircraft intercepted over Baltic Sea, says Germany

Germany and Britain intercepted three Russian military reconnaissance aircraft over the Baltic Sea, the German air force said on Wednesday.

“Reconnaissance flights intercepted. German and British Eurofighters were alerted to identify three military aircraft. The two SU-27 Flankers and a IL-20 from Russia were flying again without transponder signals in international airspace over the Baltic Sea,” said the air force on Twitter.

• Key developments from Tuesday, April 25

A Russian missile hit a museum building in the Ukrainian city of Kupiansk, in the Kharkiv region, on Tuesday, killing at least two people, wounding around 10 people and burying others under the rubble.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced Moscow’s “barbaric methods” and said Russia was trying to erase Ukraine’s history and culture.

Meanwhile Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the situation related to the Black Sea grain deal had reached a deadlock, adding there were still obstacles blocking Russian exports.

The pact was renewed for 60 days last month, but Russia has signalled it may well not agree to extend it further unless the West removes obstacles to the exports of Russian grain and fertiliser.

And Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said his government would seek the “complete transformation” of six towns that have been badly damaged in Russia’s full-scale invasion under a reconstruction programme.

Shmyhal said the towns of Borodianka and Moshchun near the capital Kyiv, Yahidine in the north, Trostianets and Tsyrkuny in the east, and Posad-Pokrovske in the south would be rebuilt “comprehensively and according to new principles” under an experimental programme.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)