MOSCOW (AP) — A Moscow court on Tuesday ordered Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to remain in jail on espionage charges until at least late June, court officials said.
The 32-year-old U.S. citizen was arrested in late March 2023 while on a reporting trip and has spent nearly a year behind bars. His arrest was extended until June 30.
Photos from the courtroom released by court officials showed Gershkovich, clad in a black checkered shirt, smiling from the glass defendant's box.
Gershkovich and his employer have denied the allegations, and the U.S. government has declared him to be wrongfully detained.
His arrest in the city of Yekaterinburg rattled journalists in Russia, where authorities have not detailed what, if any, evidence they have to support the espionage charges.
Gershkovich is being held at Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, which is notorious for its harsh conditions.
U.S. ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy attended the court hearing on Tuesday and reiterated that “the accusations against Evan are categorically untrue.”
U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy, left, enters the Moscow City Court to attend hearing on Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich's case, in Moscow, Russia, on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. A court in Moscow considers the extension of the pre-trial detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges. The current arrest term of Gershkovich runs out on March 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
“They are not a different interpretation of circumstances. They are fiction,” Tracy told reporters outside of the courthouse. “No justification for Evan’s continued detention, and no explanation as to why Evan doing his job as a journalist constituted a crime. Evan’s case is not about evidence, due process or rule of law. It is about using American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends.”
Analysts have pointed out that Moscow may be using jailed Americans as bargaining chips in soaring U.S.-Russian tensions over the Kremlin’s military operation in Ukraine. At least two U.S. citizens arrested in Russia in recent years — including WNBA star Brittney Griner — have been exchanged for Russians jailed in the U.S.
Gershkovich is the first American reporter to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since September 1986, when Nicholas Daniloff, a Moscow correspondent for U.S. News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB. Daniloff was released without charge 20 days later in a swap for an employee of the Soviet Union’s U.N. mission who was arrested by the FBI, also on spying charges.
ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — Ukraine is on its way to being able to “stand on its own feet” militarily, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday, noting that more than 20 other countries have pledged to maintain their own military and financial aid to the country even if the U.S. were to withdraw its support under a different president.
Blinken for the first time directly addressed the possibility that former President Donald Trump could win the November election and back away from commitments to Ukraine. The U.S., under President Joe Biden, has been the most important supporter of Ukraine's more than two-year battle against invading Russian forces.
Trump's public comments have varied between criticizing U.S. backing for Ukraine's defense and supporting it, while his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, has been a leader of Republican efforts to block what have been billions in U.S. military and financial assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022.
Concerns among Ukraine and its supporters that the country could lose vital U.S. support have increased as Trump's campaign surges and Biden's falters.
Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke on the phone Friday.
“I noted the vital bipartisan and bicameral American support for protecting our nation’s freedom and independence,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, saying they agreed “to discuss at a personal meeting what steps can make peace fair and truly lasting.”
Trump said on his social media platform that he appreciated Zelenskyy's outreach and promised to “end the war that has cost so many lives and devastated countless innocent families.”
Blinken said Friday that any new administration would have to take into account strong bipartisan backing in Congress for Ukraine in the interests of countering Russian President Vladimir Putin's attempts to expand Moscow's territory and influence.
“Every administration has an opportunity, of course, to set its own policy. We can’t lock in the future,” Blinken said, speaking to an audience of U.S. policymakers and others at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.
But he pointed to the security agreements that the United States and more than 20 other allies — including some NATO partners, Japan and the European Union — signed at a NATO summit in Washington this month.
“Were we to renege on that ... I suppose that's possible, but happily we’ve got another 20 some-odd countries that are doing the same thing,” Blinken said.
Ukraine itself was on a trajectory to ensure it “stands on its own feet militarily, economically, democratically,” Blinken said.
Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba also made similar appeals to the international community Friday during an online question and answer session on social media site Reddit. He particularly stressed Kyiv’s willingness to work with whichever party won the U.S. general election.
“I believe any U.S. administration should respect three features that make Ukraine different from other partners of America who had sought its support,” he said.
“We never asked U.S. troops to fight and die for Ukraine, we only requested weapons and support to our economy; we never intended to rely on foreign aid indefinitely and this is why we are reforming our economy and tripled domestic weapon production last year and plan to increase it sixfold this year; and we are fully transparent in using the U.S. assistance.”
Associated Press writer Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, contributed to this report.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks to the press after a bilateral meeting with Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martinez Acha at the State Department in Washington, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Blinken points to wider pledges to support Ukraine in case US backs away under Trump
Blinken points to wider pledges to support Ukraine in case US backs away under Trump
