Russian drone strike targets Kharkiv, Pussy Riot’s Pyotr Verzilov sentenced to 8.5 years in absentia

It’s day 618 of the war in Ukraine. The Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine was attacked by 10 Russian drones overnight.

Pyotr Verzilov has been sentenced in absentia to 8.5 years in jail for posts about civilian killings in Bucha.

Dagestan Governor Sergey Melikov has condemned rioters after footage of airport riot released.

Ukraine’s Kharkiv region struck by 10 drones 

The governor of eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Oleh Synehubov, said that fires had broken out following a large-scale Russian drone strike on the city of Kharkiv and nearby villages overnight.

“There were strikes on civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv and another residential area in the district, causing a fire to break out. At the moment, there are no reports of casualties,” Synehubov stated. 

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said that fire-fighters were working to control the blaze.

Pyotr Verzilov sentenced in absentia to 8.5 years in jail over Bucha posts 

A Moscow Court has sentenced Pyotr Verzilov, a member of the group Pussy Riot and a co-founder of Russian independent media outlet Mediazona, in absentia to 8.5 years for spreading "false information” about the Russian military, Mediazona reported.

The prosecution had requested a 9-year prison sentence and a 4-year ban on Verzilov publishing content online. The charges related to two tweets and two Instagram posts Verzilov made about alleged atrocities carried out by the Russian military in the Ukrainian town of Bucha last year. Officials said the posts led to citizens “forming the wrong opinion about the goals and objectives of the special military operation".

Verzilov is a performance artist and a member of the Russian activist group Pussy Riot who left Russia in 2020. 

In October, Verzilov left Mediazona after revealing that he had joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Dagestan governor says anti-Semitic riot has made the region a laughing stock 

Reacting to fresh video footage of an anti-Semitic riot that took place at the airport in the regional capital Makhachkala on Sunday, Dagestan Governor Sergey Melikov said the rioters had made the region a laughing stock. 

The footage, in which one rioter can be seen peering into an aircraft engine as the angry mob hunts for Jews, drew Melikov’s particular ire. “Why would you look for a Jew in the fuselage, under the wing or in the aircraft engine?”, he asked. 

“You think it’s funny now. I also smiled when I first saw it. But then I was horrified. He was looking for Jews. The whole world is laughing at us because of these crooks,” Melikov said, according to Russian news outlet RBC.

A criminal investigation has been opened since the airport was stormed by an angry mob looking for “refugees from Israel” on Sunday, injuring over 20 people and ransacking the airport.