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RIA Novosti Ukraine chief taken to SBU pre-trial detention center in Kherson

On May 15, the Ukrainian Security Service carried out a large-scale operation against RIA Novosti Ukraine staff members, accusing them of high treason

© Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

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KIEV, May 16. /TASS/. Chief editor of the RIA Novosti Ukraine news agency Kirill Vyshinsky, detained in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev on Tuesday, has been taken to the city of Kherson and put into a pre-trial detention center belonging to the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), Spokesperson for the so-called ‘Crimean’ Prosecutor’s Office [part of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office, based in Kherson - TASS] Tatyana Tikhonchik told TASS on Wednesday.

"The detained has been taken to Kherson and is currently kept at the Ukrainian Security Service’s pre-trial detention center," she said. According to the spokesperson, the prosecution intends to request the Kherson City Court decide on a measure of restraint later on Wednesday. Tikhonchik added that a court hearing was likely to be held on Thursday, May 17.

The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s spokesperson Larisa Sargan said that the prosecution would insist Vyshinsky be arrested.

"Vyshinksy has been charged with high treason under Article 111.1 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code… A preventive measure is yet to be worked out. The prosecution will insist that he be arrested," Sargan wrote on Facebook.

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Ukraine’s security service charges RIA Novosti Ukraine editor with high treason

Meanwhile, Vyshinsky’s wife Irina has told Russia’s Channel One that her husband has some health issues and cannot not do without medicine.

"I am very concerned because my husband has rather serious health issues. A person in his condition cannot do without medicine," she said, adding she did not have immediate information about her husband’s condition.

On May 15, the SBU carried out a large-scale operation against RIA Novosti Ukraine staff members, accusing them of high treason. Vyshinsky was detained outside his home early on Tuesday. Soon after that, searches were conducted in the news agency’s Kiev office and press center, as well as in some journalists’ apartments. At the same time, the SBU issued a statement claiming that "a network of media structures, which Moscow used for carrying out a hybrid war" against Kiev had been exposed.

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