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Russia Says it Foiled Ukrainian Assassination Plot Against Senior Putin-linked Priest

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his speech during a meeting of the Federal Security Service (FSB) board, in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his speech during a meeting of the Federal Security Service (FSB) board, in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
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Russia Says it Foiled Ukrainian Assassination Plot Against Senior Putin-linked Priest

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his speech during a meeting of the Federal Security Service (FSB) board, in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his speech during a meeting of the Federal Security Service (FSB) board, in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday it had foiled an attempt by Ukraine's military intelligence service to assassinate Tikhon Shevkunov, a senior priest in Russia's Orthodox Church.
According to Reuters, there was no immediate reaction from Kyiv to the allegation.
Shevkunov, who has been described in Russian media reports for years as "Putin's confessor" - something he has neither confirmed nor denied - has maintained a public acquaintance with President Vladimir Putin since the late 1990s and the Kremlin has said the two men know each other well.
In 2023, he was appointed metropolitan of Crimea, becoming one of the top Russian Orthodox Church officials on the peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The FSB said in a statement it had detained one Russian and one Ukrainian man in connection with the plot and had confiscated an improvised explosive device. It said the two suspects, whom it did not name, had confessed.
It said that the two men, who had been recruited by Ukraine using the Telegram messenger service, had been plotting the assassination attempt since mid-2024 and had planned to kill Shevkunov in Moscow.
Ukraine has taken responsibility for a number of assassinations in Russia since the start of the war in 2022, including pro-Moscow Ukrainian blogger Vladlen Tatarsky in April 2023, and the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Troops, Igor Kirillov, in December 2024.

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54 Migrants Rescued from Mediterranean Oil Platform

FILED - 31 May 2025, France, Gravelines: A group of people thought to be migrants onboard a small boat leaving the beach at Gravelines, France, attempting to reach the UK by crossing the English Channel. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire/dpa
FILED - 31 May 2025, France, Gravelines: A group of people thought to be migrants onboard a small boat leaving the beach at Gravelines, France, attempting to reach the UK by crossing the English Channel. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire/dpa
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54 Migrants Rescued from Mediterranean Oil Platform

FILED - 31 May 2025, France, Gravelines: A group of people thought to be migrants onboard a small boat leaving the beach at Gravelines, France, attempting to reach the UK by crossing the English Channel. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire/dpa
FILED - 31 May 2025, France, Gravelines: A group of people thought to be migrants onboard a small boat leaving the beach at Gravelines, France, attempting to reach the UK by crossing the English Channel. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire/dpa

Over 50 migrants were headed to the Italian island of Lampedusa Sunday after a charity ship rescued them from an abandoned oil platform in the Mediterranean, where one woman gave birth.

The vessel Astral, operated by the Spain-based NGO Open Arms, rescued the 54 people overnight, the group said in a statement.

The migrants had been trapped on the oil platform for three days after their rubber boat shipwrecked following their departure from Libya on Tuesday, Open Arms said.

On Friday, one of the migrants gave birth to a boy, while another woman had given birth days before. Two other young children were among the group, Open Arms said, according to AFP.

Later Sunday, the charity said that, following the rescue of those on the oil platform, the Astral came upon another 109 people, including four people in the water.

That group, which included 10 children, had also departed from Libya, it said.
Open Arms said they provided life jackets to the migrants before they were rescued by another charity ship, the Louise Michel, which is sponsored by street artist Banksy.

The Louise Michel, a former French navy vessel, was transporting the migrants to a safe port in Sicily, Open Arms said.

It is not unusual for migrants crossing the Mediterranean on leaky and overcrowded boats to seek refuge on offshore oil platforms.

As of June 1, some 23,000 migrants had reached Italy by sea this year, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).