Russian Police Arrest Ukrainian Consul in Saint Petersburg

Russian authorities have arrested the Ukrainian consul general in Saint Petersburg for obtaining "secret information outside of diplomatic activity." According to the Russian news agency TASS, the Ukrainian consul general, Alexander Sosonyuk, was detained after acquiring information about a Russian citizen. Russian authorities justified the arrest of "Sosonyuk" by stating that he obtained confidential information from the databases of law enforcement agencies in the country. Photos showed elements of the Russian Federal Security Service during the arrest of the Ukrainian diplomat, marking an unprecedented escalation in the crisis between the two countries. According to TASS, the Ukrainian consul received confidential information on Friday regarding a Russian citizen. The Russian Federal Security Service confirmed that "the consul's activities contradict the status of diplomatic work and have a clearly hostile nature towards Moscow." Russian authorities pledged to take the necessary actions against the Ukrainian diplomat in accordance with international law. On Friday, Ukraine escalated its stance towards Moscow following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's request for his country to join NATO amid Russian threats, urging Europeans to turn "words into actions." Leaders from Germany, France, and Ukraine had called for Russia to withdraw its troops stationed at the Ukrainian border. Moscow has amassed tens of thousands of soldiers at the border of this former Soviet republic, which aims to join NATO. Recently, Kyiv and Western countries criticized Moscow for sending troops to the Ukrainian and Crimean borders, a peninsula annexed by Russia, during a time when violent clashes with pro-Russian separatists occur almost daily. U.S. President Joe Biden had urged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to "reduce rising tensions" with Ukraine, joining a group of Western countries that condemned Moscow's troop build-up at the Ukrainian border, which has raised NATO's concerns.