SBU detains executives connected to Russian oligarch.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained two Ukrainian executives suspected of helping Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska embezzle weapons production supplies to Russia, the SBU announced Feb.

15. The SBU also issued Deripaska a notice of suspicion in absentia. He is charged with violating seven articles of the Criminal Code, including financing actions aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order of Ukraine.

Deripaska, billionaire and former president of the aluminum giant Rusal, was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018 and by the U.K. in 2022, following Russia's full-scale invasion. Ukraine nationalized Deripaska's business assets in February 2023. According to the SBU's investigation, management at the Hlukhiv Quartzite Quarry, one of Deripaska's properties later nationalized by Ukraine, allegedly sold bulk shipments of rock for steelmaking to Russian defense companies from 2012 until the full-scale invasion in 2022.

Russian manufacturers used the raw materials to produce Iskander missiles and other weapons systems. Deripaska's "top managers" at the quarry were detained for their role in financing Russian military aggression, the SBU said. The SBU said it had collected evidence that these individuals helped Deripaska embezzle the quarry's products to Russia beginning in 2012, despite existing bans on the sale of these materials.

The unnamed managers, described as a director and a supervisor of the Hlukhiv quarry, were arrested in different regions of Ukraine, the SBU said.

Ukraine pins hopes on home-made drones to counter Russia

President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Feb.

7 that the Ukrainian military would create a separate branch of the Armed Forces dedicated to drones.

Throughout the full-scale invasion, Ukraine has been a drone tactics pioneer, from applying purpose-built military UAVs to weaponizing civilian models...