volodymyr zlensky nieuws - reuters in english
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Zelenskyy

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--  Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint press conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, April 29, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

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MOSCOW, May 21 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was seeking greater Western involvement in the conflict because Ukrainian forces were in an extremely unfavourable situation at the frontline.

Zelenskiy told Reuters on Monday that he was pushing Western partners to get more directly involved in the war by helping to intercept Russian missiles over Ukraine and allowing Kyiv to use Western weapons against enemy military equipment amassing near the border.

Asked about the Reuters interview, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said some Ukrainian officials including Zelenskiy had been sometimes "slipping into hysteria" over recent days.

"This is due to the extremely unfavourable position of the forces of the Kyiv regime at the front," Peskov told reporters.

Peskov added that even if the flow of Western military aid increased then it would not change the big picture trend at the front, where Russian forces are advancing, and criticised Ukraine for shelling civilian areas in Russia.

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russian forces advancing in Ukraine's northeast were carving out a buffer zone to protect Russia from attacks and said the West was "sick in the head" if it thought it could dictate terms to Moscow.

Russian forces control 18% of Ukrainian territory.

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Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; editing by Guy Faulconbridge

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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--  [1/5]Russian physicist Anatoly Maslov, who was arrested in 2022 and accused of state treason, enters an enclosure for defendants before a court hearing in Saint Petersburg, Russia, May 21, 2024. REUTERS/Anton Vaganov Purchase Licensing Rights

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LONDON, May 21 (Reuters) - Russian physicist Anatoly Maslov was convicted of treason and sentenced to 14 years in a penal colony on Tuesday in the latest of several cases against experts working on the science underpinning Russia's development of hypersonic missiles.

White-haired Maslov, 77, stood in a glass box in the St Petersburg courtroom and listened attentively without showing emotion, as the judge read the verdict after a trial that was closed to the press. He had protested his innocence.

Maslov is one of three scientists from the same Siberian institute, all specialists in hypersonics, who have been arrested since 2022 on treason charges. The other two, Alexander Shiplyuk and Valery Zvegintsev, are awaiting trial.

The trio, and a number of other scientists accused in similar cases, had conducted theoretical work in areas relevant to the development of hypersonic missiles - cutting-edge weapons capable of carrying payloads at up to 10 times the speed of sound to punch through air-defence systems.

President Vladimir Putin has said repeatedly that Russia is a world leader in these weapons, which it has acknowledged using in the Ukraine war.

Lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov of Pervy Otdel (First Department), an association that specialises in defending people in cases of treason and espionage, said the charges against all the accused scientists were similar - divulging information considered a state secret while participating in an international conference or research.

"Any conviction against Maslov is a gross violation of the law," he said. "I am sure that Maslov is not guilty of the acts accused of him and is a victim of the policies of the Russian authorities."

SHOCKED BY SENTENCE

Maslov's lawyer Olga Dinze told reporters her client, who has serious heart problems, was shocked by the sentence but was "holding firm" and would appeal.

She described him as a man who lived modestly and had dedicated his life to Russian science, turning down numerous invitations to leave the country and join a western university.

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