Norway expels 15 Russian diplomats, accusing them of being intelligence officers
Norway’s foreign ministry has said it has decided to expel 15 Russian embassy officials in Oslo, claiming that they were intelligence officers operating under the cover of diplomatic positions.
In a statement, the ministry said:
The government’s decision is in response to the changed security situation in Europe, which has led to an increased intelligence threat from Russia.
The officers concerned “must leave Norway shortly”, it added.
The Norwegian foreign minister, Anniken Huitfeldt, said in a statement:
This is an important step in countering, and reducing the level of, Russian intelligence activity in Norway, and thus in safeguarding our national interests.
Russia’s foreign ministry said it would respond to Norway’s expulsion of its 15 diplomats, state media reported.
Key events
Here’s more from Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who has said his country would not change its demand that Russia must withdraw its forces from all of Ukraine – including Crimea.
Kuleba, addressing the Black Sea security conference via video link, called the war in Ukraine “a bleeding wound in the middle of Europe”. He said:
We are united by UN charter principles and the shared conviction that Crimea is Ukraine and it will return under Ukraine’s control.
Kyiv “categorically disagrees” with the idea that “Crimea is somehow special and should not be returned to Ukraine, as any other part of our territory”, he said.
Poland is “sceptical” about French attempts to organise talks between Ukraine and Russia, Poland’s foreign minister, Zbigniew Rau, has said.
In a speech to parliament, Rau said:
We do not see any signs that Russia is ready to revise its policy of territorial conquests … the possible result of such talks cannot be any separate guarantees for Russia, apart from the observance of the norms of international law.
His comments came a week after France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, held talks with Xi Jinping in which he urged the Chinese leader to bring Russia “back to reason” over the war in Ukraine.
After the meeting between Macron and Xi, the French president said his Chinese counterpart had “important words” on Ukraine. He said France and China agreed nuclear weapons should be excluded from the conflict.
But just hours later in Moscow, a Russian government spokesperson said he saw no prospect for China to mediate in the Ukraine conflict and that Russia had “no other way” than to press on with its offensive.
Norway expels 15 Russian diplomats, accusing them of being intelligence officers
Norway’s foreign ministry has said it has decided to expel 15 Russian embassy officials in Oslo, claiming that they were intelligence officers operating under the cover of diplomatic positions.
In a statement, the ministry said:
The government’s decision is in response to the changed security situation in Europe, which has led to an increased intelligence threat from Russia.
The officers concerned “must leave Norway shortly”, it added.
The Norwegian foreign minister, Anniken Huitfeldt, said in a statement:
This is an important step in countering, and reducing the level of, Russian intelligence activity in Norway, and thus in safeguarding our national interests.
Russia’s foreign ministry said it would respond to Norway’s expulsion of its 15 diplomats, state media reported.
Summary of the day so far …
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The man responsible for the leak of hundreds of classified Pentagon documents is reported to be a young, racist gun enthusiast who worked on a military base, and who was seeking to impress two dozen fellow members of an internet chat group. MPs have warned that British lives have been put at risk by the leak.
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Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, is grappling with a mystery ailment in jail that could be some sort of slow-acting poison, and has lost 8kg in weight in just over two weeks, his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh has said. “We do not exclude that at this very time Alexei Navalny is being slowly poisoned, being killed slowly so that it attracts less attention,” Yarmysh said in a post on Twitter. “He is being held in a punishment cell with acute pain without medical help,” she said.
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Ukraine’s state-owned gas company Naftogaz on Thursday said Russia has been ordered by an arbitration court in The Hague to pay $5bn (£4bn / €4.5bn) in compensation for unlawfully expropriating its assets in Crimea, which the Russian Federation claimed to annex in 2014.
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All Ukrainian cities and Crimea must and would be part of Ukraine again, and a real peace would come by restoring the country’s borders, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Thursday.
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Russia’s foreign ministry has issued a press release about the Black Sea grain initiative, in which it states “Russia reaffirms its position that there can be no discussion of the Black Sea Grain Initiative after 18 May without any progress regarding the five systematic problems” which it claims are blocking Russia’s agricultural products from being exported.
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The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has been holding talks in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, with the foreign minister of China, Qin Gang.
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Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass is reporting that authorities in Russia have identified another suspect in the explosion that killed the pro-war military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky at a St Petersburg cafe. It named a citizen of Ukraine, Yuriy Denisov.
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The European Games in Poland must be revoked as qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics because athletes from Russia and Belarus have been barred from competing, amateur boxing’s Russian-led world body said on Thursday.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours of our live coverage.
Ukraine’s Energoatom claims Russian mine exploded at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear power company, has claimed in a statement on Telegram that a Russian mine exploded near one of the reactors at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP).
Europe’s largest nuclear power station has been occupied by Russian forces since March 2022, with both Ukraine and Russia claiming that the other side have shelled the plant, risking a nuclear accident.
In its statement, Energoatom said:
A Russian mine exploded near the control room of the fourth power unit at the ZNPP. The Russian occupiers continue to turn the ZNPP into a military base, mining the perimeter around the plant. And these actions cannot but have consequences.
According to sources, an explosion rang out near the engine room of the fourth power unit. As the nuclear terrorists themselves stated, their mine detonated. The sounds of the explosion were heard by Ukrainian nuclear workers who continue to work at the ZNPP. However, the Russians tried to “pacify” the workers and quickly cover their tracks so that the IAEA experts would not see it.
Europe’s largest nuclear facility continues to suffer from the arbitrariness of the Russian military and their henchmen, while Ukrainian personnel are desperately trying to maintain the nuclear and radiation safety of the entire continent.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Reuters has a quick snap that Russia has fined the Wikimedia Foundation a further 2m roubles ($24,500 / £19,500) for failing to remove what the authorities describe as “fake information” about Russia’s military.
Ukraine’s state-owned gas company Naftogaz on Thursday said Russia has been ordered by an arbitration court in The Hague to pay $5bn (£4bn / €4.5bn) in compensation for unlawfully expropriating its assets in Crimea, which the Russian Federation claimed to annex in 2014.
In a statement, Reuters reports Naftogaz described a ruling on Wednesday by The Hague’s arbitration tribunal at the permanent court of arbitration as a “key victory on the energy front”.
“Despite Russia’s attempts to obstruct justice, the arbitration tribunal ordered Russia to compensate Naftogaz for losses of $5bn,” it said.
Among the property seized by Russia, Suspilne reported, are the energy and gas transportation system as well as the company’s financial assets.
Russia again says no further talks on Black Sea grain deal until ‘obstacles’ to Russian exports end
Russia’s foreign ministry has issued a press release about the Black Sea grain initiative, in which it states “Russia reaffirms its position that there can be no discussion of the Black Sea Grain Initiative after 18 May without any progress regarding the five systematic problems” which it claims are blocking Russia’s agricultural products from being exported.
The Russian demands are set out as:
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reconnecting Rosselkhozbank to the Swift payment service
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resuming supplies of agricultural machinery, spare parts and maintenance service
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lifting restrictions on insurance and reinsurance, plus unblocking access to ports
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restoring the work of the Tolyatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline
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unblocking foreign assets and accounts of Russian companies related to the production and transportation of food and fertilisers
In the press release, Russia’s foreign ministry claims that the latest statements by the UN about the deal “distorts data and facts”, and that “despite all the grandiloquent statements made about global food security and assistance to countries in need, the Black Sea grain initiative has served Kyiv’s commercial exports exclusively in the interests of western countries.”
The European Games in Poland must be revoked as qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics because athletes from Russia and Belarus have been barred from competing, amateur boxing’s Russian-led world body said on Thursday.
The Games in Krakow start on 21 June and run until 2 July, with 19 sports being held as Olympic qualifiers.
The International Boxing Association (IBA) said the continental qualifier “totally contradicts” Olympic organisers’ recommendation that Russian and Belarusian athletes be allowed to return to international competition.
“For this reason, the European Games 2023 can no longer remain an IOC recognised qualifier for Paris 2024 and must be annulled,” Reuters reports it said.
An air alert has been declared across all of Ukraine.
Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass is reporting that authorities in Russia have identified another suspect in the explosion that killed the pro-war military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky at a St Petersburg cafe.
Quoting authorities, it writes that the attack was “prepared by a member of the Ukrainian sabotage and terrorist group, a citizen of Ukraine Yuriy Denisov, born in 1987, who, through an express delivery service through an intermediary, transferred to her in Moscow an explosive device camouflaged as a plaster bust of a military commissar.”
Tass added “the procedure for putting him on the international wanted list has been initiated.”
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Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, is grappling with a mystery ailment in jail that could be some sort of slow-acting poison, and has lost 8kg in weight in just over two weeks, his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh has said.
“We do not exclude that at this very time Alexei Navalny is being slowly poisoned, being killed slowly so that it attracts less attention,” Reuters reports Yarmysh said in a post on Twitter. “He is being held in a punishment cell with acute pain without medical help,” she said.
Archie Bland
The US intelligence leak is also the subject of our First Edition newsletter today. My colleague Archie Bland sums up what we know so far from the leaks about major US allies:
Ukraine: US intelligence officials were pessimistic in February about Ukraine’s prospects for a new attack in the spring, saying that Kyiv could fall “well short” of recapturing territory seized by Russia. There are also details of serious air defence shortages and a risk of running out of anti-aircraft missiles completely by May.
Russia: The leaks suggest that the US has a remarkable level of insight into Russian military operations, with live information about the targets being attacked by Moscow and details of a plan to pay a bonus to soldiers who damage or destroy Nato tanks. Early this morning the New York Times reported (£) that a new batch of 27 pages shows that “the depth of the infighting inside the Russian government appears broader and deeper than previously understood”. There is also information on the Russian mercenary Wagner group’s plan to expand its operations in Haiti, as well as US use of advanced satellite imaging technology to gather intelligence on Russian forces.
UK: One document suggests that 97 special forces operatives were in Ukraine in February and March – and 50 of them were British, Harry Taylor and Manisha Ganguly report. Their purpose there is not specified, but it is suggested that the special forces could form part of a coordinated Nato group.
UN: Some documents seen by the BBC appear to describe private conversations between the UN secretary general António Guterres and his deputy about a deal to secure the export of grain from Ukraine to help tackle a global food crisis. The files reportedly suggest that the US felt Guterres was too sympathetic to Russian interests, saying that he was “undermining broader efforts to hold Moscow accountable for its actions in Ukraine”.
South Korea: Documents based in part on intercepted communications show Seoul grappling with US pressure to ship ammunition to Ukraine and concerns that artillery shells requested by Washington for its own use could end up being passed on. South Korea has a longstanding policy of not providing lethal weapons to countries at war.
Israel: Another document says that the Mossad intelligence agency encouraged its staff to take part in protests over Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial plans to weaken the independence of the country’s judiciary. Mossad has denied those claims. There is also an assessment of scenarios in which Israel could be persuaded to provide weapons to Ukraine.
