Russia charges Ukrainian reporter with espionage

Sushchenko's lawyer, Mark Feigin, told reporters on October 7 that his client was officially charged with espionage, adding that Sushchenko pleaded not guilty. Sushchenko, a Paris-based correspondent of the Ukrinform news agency, was detained in Moscow on suspicion of collecting classified information. On October 1, a court in Moscow sent him to pre-trial detention for two months. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry expressed outrage over the journalist’s detention, calling it Russia’s purposeful policy to use Ukrainians who are in the hands of its authorities, as political hostages in its hybrid aggression against Ukraine. His employer said Sushchenko was in Moscow on vacation visiting his family. International organizations and foreign authorities expressed concern over this arrest and called for the reporter’s immediate release.