Poland leaves warning and Wall Street Journal journalist is in pre-trial detention: summary of the 772nd day of war

Polish authorities left a warning to Russia, following an alleged invasion of Polish airspace by a Russian missile, in the early hours of Sunday. On RMF24 radio, Poland’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Andrzej Szejna, warned that, if the situation were to repeat itself, NATO’s defense systems could shoot down Russian projectiles.

According to the The Guardian, Szejna stated that Russia “knew that if the missile ventured into Polynia, it would be shot down”, and that this would be considered a “counterattack”. “Several concepts are being analyzed by NATO, including that such missiles be shot down when they come too close to the NATO border”, pointed out the Polish official, without devaluing the need for Ukraine to approve the measure.

After the incident, the Russian ambassador to Poland was summoned this Monday by the government in Warsaw, to present justifications about the case, but he did not respond to the request. Instead, Sergey Andreyev told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that the Poles had not presented evidence that there had actually been an invasion of their airspace.

This is not the first time that Poland has been ‘caught’ in a diplomatic incident due to projectiles used in the war in Ukraine. In April 2023, a Russian missile was found in a village in the north of the country, and in November 2022, a Ukrainian missile fell in another village in southern Poland, in Przewodów, killing two people.

Gershkovich remains in preventative until June 30th

The American journalist Evan Gershkovich, who is imprisoned in Russia on espionage charges, will remain in pre-trial detention until at least June 30th. Through Telegram, cited by The Guardiana Moscow court confirmed the extension of the measure applied to the Wall Street Journal journalist, whose detention has been repudiated by the US authorities.

The White House accuses Russia of using Gershkovich as a political weapon, similar to what happened in 2023 with basketball player Brittney Griner, to ensure more prisoner exchanges. The process has been kept highly secretive and the evidence supporting the espionage accusation is unknown.

Evan Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023, while reporting in the Ural Mountains, and risks a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. The reporter is being held in Lefortovo prison, on the outskirts of Moscow, a place whose harsh conditions have been denounced by Gershkovich’s family and defense team.

Other news

> The Kremlin insisted on its theory that Ukraine was responsible for orchestrating the terrorist attack in Moscow last Friday, which killed almost 140 people. To Russian agencies, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, stated that “of course it is Ukraine” that organized the attackclaimed by the Islamic State jihadists of Khorasan.

> The Ukrainian President fired his secretary of the National Security Council, Oleksiy Danilov, this Tuesday, having been replaced by the head of the foreign intelligence service, Oleksandr Lytvynenko. No reasons were given for the change in the body’s portfolio, which supports Volodymyr Zelensky on issues of national security and defense coordination, but the decision is the latest episode in the recent series of changes at the top of the Ukrainian military hierarchy.

> Ukrainian forces are in a “difficult” situation near Chasiv Yar, the city where Russia is concentrating its offensive, the country’s army admitted. “The situation regarding Chasiv Yar is difficult and tense and it is not new today. It is now the focus of the enemy’s assault operations to break through our defenses and reach the city”, said the press officer of the 16th Ukrainian Artillery Brigade, Oleg Kalashnikov.

> France wants to accelerate the production of weapons to equip its military and export to other countries, guaranteeing support for Ukraine, French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu said today. “We need more weapons and we need to be able to produce more quickly and help Ukraine as a priority, but there are also more countries that need this type of equipment for their needs”, said the minister at a press conference.

> A delegation of MEPs concluded a visit to Kiev this afternoon, where they asked for urgent support for the Ukrainian authorities to face the Russian invasion, through the rapid and sustained supply of weapons and ammunition and the seizure of Russian assets.