Security services searched the home of one of Ukraine’s most prominent billionaires, moving against a figure once seen as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s sponsor in what the authorities called a war-time anti-corruption purge.
CRACKDOWN IN UKRAINE
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* The security service later said it had uncovered a scheme to embezzle more than $1 billion at oil producer Ukrnafta and oil refinery Ukrtatnafta, companies that the billionaire, Ihor Kolomoiskiy, used to partly own. Kolomoiskiy, who could not be reached for comment, has previously denied any wrongdoing.
* Ukrainian security forces also raided the Tax Office and the home of former interior minister Arsen Avakov, and a new Customs Service chief was named, two days before Ukraine hosts a summit with the European Union at which Kyiv wants to show it is cracking down after years of chronic corruption.
* Avakov said investigators were looking into the purchase of helicopters of the type of one that crashed on Jan. 18, killing 14 people including Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi. He said “nothing relevant to the interest of the investigation was found.”
CONFLICT
* Russian forces were maneuvering to try to surround the eastern city of Bakhmut, where troops were fighting building to building for gains of barely 100 meters (yards) a night amid constant Russian shelling, a soldier in a Ukrainian unit of Belarusian volunteers told Reuters from inside the city.
* Bakhmut and villages on its southern approaches came under renewed Russian fire, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said late on Tuesday, adding that Russian forces also tried to advance on Avdiivka, Lyman, Vuhledar and a half dozen other towns and villages.
* Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
DIPLOMACY
* Russia said it wanted to preserve its last remaining nuclear treaty with the United States despite what it called a destructive U.S. approach to arms control. Washington on Tuesday accused Moscow of violating the New START treaty by refusing to allow inspections on its territory.
* Washington is preparing a new $2.2 billion package expected to include longer-range rockets, two U.S. officials briefed on the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
* Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said further supplies of Western weaponry to Ukraine would lead to more escalation of the conflict there and draw NATO members more deeply into it.
* Latvia joined Kyiv in threatening to boycott the 2024 Olympics and qualifiers if Russian and Belarusian athletes are included while the war continues in Ukraine.
QUOTE
“Are there any other children you can play with here?” policeman Pavlo Dyachenko asked six-year-old Arina after finding her in Bakhmut. “No,” she replied, and started to cry.
(Compiled by Cynthia Osterman)