Finland is closing its border with Russia, and doctors have demanded Skochilenko’s release. Main news of the past weekend

Finland closes border with Russia

On November 18, the four largest border crossings on the Finnish border with Russia were closed - Vaalimaa (on the Russian side - Torfyanovka), Nuijamaa (Brusnichnoe), Imatra (Svetogorsk) and Niirala (Värtsilä). the imminent closure of the checkpoint on November 16 announced Prime Minister Petteri Orpo . The Finnish authorities explained their actions by the increased flow of illegal migrants and asylum seekers arriving from Russia.

Later, Finnish media, citing sources , reported that Finnish authorities are developing a plan to completely close the border with Russia. their readiness to take similar measures Representatives of the Estonian border service announced .

On November 19, Finland closed the fifth checkpoint on the border with Russia - Vartius. The reason was also the large number of asylum seekers. The day before, 67 people filed relevant applications there.

Doctors demanded the immediate release of artist Sasha Skochilenko

Health workers published an open letter to Vladimir Putin, in which they demanded the immediate release of St. Petersburg artist Sasha Skochilenko. Last week, she was sentenced to seven years in prison for an anti-war protest, during which she replaced price tags with stickers with anti-war texts in one of the city's stores.

The letter notes that Skochilenko has a number of severe chronic diseases that require medical supervision and a special diet. Staying in a colony, according to doctors, could lead to a “significant deterioration” in her health.

“Against the backdrop of reports of mass early releases of people who have committed serious crimes, such as rape and murder, the actual imprisonment of a person in whose act there is no crime and no victims seems especially unfair. We demand from you, as the guarantor of the Constitution, the immediate release of Sasha Skochilenko,” the letter says.

At the time of publication of this note, the letter was signed by more than 350 doctors.

Ukrainian teenager Bogdan Ermokhin, taken from occupied Mariupol, left Russia

As his lawyer Ekaterina Bobrovskaya told Ukrainian media, Ermokhin went to Belarus, where he met with his sister.

Earlier, the Commissioner for Human Rights in Ukraine, Dmitry Lubinets , said that there are “agreements on the return” of Bogdan Ermokhin to Ukraine. Russian Children's Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova wrote that “the Russian and Ukrainian sides developed and agreed on a decision to meet Bogdan with his sister in a third country on his birthday.”

Ermokhin, along with 30 other children, was taken out of Mariupol by the Russian military in May last year. Lvova-Belova called these Ukrainian children homeless, despite the fact that Bogdan, before his deportation, studied at a college whose director was his official guardian. In Russia, Bogdan was placed under the guardianship of the Rudnitsky family, in which, besides him, 13 more children are being raised. At the beginning of 2023, he tried to return to Ukraine, but he was detained by Russian security forces at the border with Belarus.

Yemen's Houthis seize a ship belonging to an Israeli businessman

The Yemeni Houthi group Ansar Allah announced the seizure of the Israeli cargo ship Galaxy Leader in the Red Sea.

According to media reports, there were from 22 to 52 people on board the ship. It was also reported that the hijacked ship belonged to an Israeli businessman named Malik Rami Unger, and there were no Israelis on board the ship.

Reports of the Houthis' capture of the Galaxy Leader were confirmed by representatives of the Israeli army, who also stressed that there were no Israeli citizens on board. The IDF also said that the seized ship is not “Israeli” and noted that its crew consists of citizens of different countries. At the same time, the Israeli military called the seizure of the ship “a very serious global event.”

In Novosibirsk, officials met with the wives of those mobilized, demanding the return of their husbands home

The meeting took place in the Novosibirsk House of Culture of the October Revolution. About 30 people came to it. At the same time, the authorities ordered that media representatives not be allowed into the event, with the exception of employees of the Vesti and OTS channels. After the meeting, the women who took part in it said that they did not believe in the return of their loved ones from the front.

Previously, the authorities of Novosibirsk and a number of other cities prohibited relatives of those mobilized from holding rallies. “Important Stories” wrote that the police came to the families of several mobilized people because they were in chat rooms after the servicemen returned home, where they discussed, among other things, the possibility of holding actions.

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