For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit .
U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner "does not expect miracles" at her appeal hearing on Tuesday against a nine-year Russian jail term for having cannabis oil in her luggage, her lawyers said in a statement, according to Reuters.
The twice Olympic gold medalist was arrested on February 17 at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is banned in Russia. She was sentenced on August 4 to nine years in a penal colony on charges of possessing and smuggling drugs.
Griner's lawyers, Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, said she would take part in Tuesday's hearing by video link from the detention center where she has been held, and that they expected a verdict the same day.
Kyiv on Monday accused Russia of purposefully delaying the arrival from Turkey of more than 165 cargo ships heading to Ukrainian ports to be loaded with grain, Agence France-Presse reported.
Russia's inspectors "have been significantly prolonging the inspection of vessels... As a result, more than 165 vessels have been stuck in a queue near the Bosphorus Strait and this number continues to grow daily", the Ukrainian foreign ministry said
"We have reason to believe that the delays in Russia's inspections of the Grain Initiative's vessels are politically motivated," it added.
A Ukrainian mortar team takes pride in accurate strikes, even at a distance and at night, aided by drones that provide the exact location of Russian troops and military equipment. The team leader, a former life insurance sales manager, says the targeting data helps his fellow soldiers remain at a safe distance during artillery duels in the Donetsk region. But, he adds, they need to move quickly after firing.
Ukraine’s top soccer club on Monday urged FIFA to remove Iran from the World Cup because of the country’s alleged military support to the Russian invasion,
Shakhtar Donetsk chief executive Sergei Palkin accused Iran of “direct participation in terrorist attacks on Ukrainians,” suggesting his own country’s team should play in Qatar instead as a replacement.
“This will be a fair decision that should draw the attention of the whole world to a regime that kills its best people and helps kill Ukrainians,” Palkin said in a statement one day before his team plays at Celtic in the Champions League.
The White House said Thursday that the U.S. has evidence that Iranian troops are “directly engaged on the ground” in Crimea supporting Russian drone attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure and civilian population. And the head of Ukraine’s intelligence service, Kyrylo Budanov, said in a published interview on Monday that Russian forces had used about 330 Iranian-built “Shahed” drones as of Saturday — and that more had been ordered.
A senior Russian official says that authorities have taken steps to boost weapons production amid the fighting in Ukraine, The Associated Press reported.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council chaired by President Vladimir Putin, said he visited the country’s top tank factory in the Ural Mountains city of Nizhny Tagil on Monday to discuss ways of increasing output.
Medvedev noted that foreign observers have predicted that Russia would run out of its weapons stockpiles soon, adding that such forecasts were bound to fail.
He said that “production of weapons and equipment — from tanks and cannons to precision missiles and drones — is increasing many fold.”
“You just wait,” he said.
Norwegian police on Monday placed into custody two more Russians on suspicion of taking photographs of a restricted military installation in northern Norway, .
Prosecutor Steffen Ravnåsen told Norwegian broadcaster NRK the Russian citizens - a man and a woman in their 30s - were arrested Saturday near Bjerkvik which houses Norwegian Armed Forces military facility and barracks. Norway is a member of NATO.
Ravnåsen said the pair, who were in a car with Russian number plates, is suspected of illegally taking photos. The case has been referred to Norway’s domestic security agency PST which handles similar cases that involved Russians allegedly taking photos or flying drones illegally.
In recent weeks, several Russian citizens have been detained in Norway including four Russian nationals — three men and one woman — who were seen taking photos in central Norway of objects covered under a ban on photography. They have since been released.