White House blasts ‘sham’ hearing after Russia rejects Brittney Griner appeal: Live updates

Russia responds to Ukraine regaining land. Has the conflict hit a turning point?

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Russia’s fleet of attack helicopters are taking a beating at the hands of Ukraine’s portable air defense systems, the British Defense Ministry said in its most recent assessment of the war.

There have been at least 23 verified losses of Russia’s Ka-52 HOKUM attack helicopters in Ukraine since the invasion, representing over 25% of the Russia’s fleet of 90, the assessment says. Dozens of other helicopters also have been shot down.

© Alexander Zemlianichenko, AP WNBA star Brittney Griner is seen on a TV screen as she waits to appear in a video link prior to a hearing at the Moscow Regional Court in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022.

“Russia is still failing to maintain adequate air superiority in order to reliably carry out effective (airplane) support near the front line,” the assessment says. “And its artillery ammunition is running low.”

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Russian commanders are likely resorting to high-risk attack helicopter missions as one of the few options available to provide close support for troops in combat, the assessment says.

UKRAINE SHOOTING DOWN DRONES: Up to 85% of Russia’s killer drones reportedly shot down by Ukraine. Live updates

Other developments:

►Norway’s domestic security agency says it has detained a man who entered the country as a Brazilian citizen but is suspected of being a Russian spy.

►German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived in Kyiv for his first visit to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion. He said he wanted to “send a signal of solidarity to Ukrainians.”

GRINER ‘VERY NERVOUS’: Brittney Griner’s drug charges appeal in Russia: What we know

White House blasts ‘sham’ Russian appeal hearing in Griner case

A Russian court’s rejection of Brittney Griner’s appeal of a nine-year prison sentence for drug possession means the WNBA basketball start will “continue to be wrongfully detained under intolerable circumstances after having to undergo another sham judicial proceeding today,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said.

Sullivan said the administration is continuing to talk with Russian officials about a possible prisoner swap. And he lauded Griner’s family for “courage in the face of these unimaginable circumstances.”

Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law, said the Russian court dispensed very quick resolution unlike the appeals process in U.S. federal courts.

“Griner’s best hope now appears to be some form of prisoner swap with Russia,” he said. 

Griner, who appeared in a Moscow-area courtroom via videolink from a cell at her detention facility, was arrested Feb. 17 after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. Griner, 32, said she had inadvertently packed them in haste and that she had no criminal intent. One week after her arrest Russia invaded Ukraine and U.S.-Russia relations sank to a near-historic low, complicating efforts to free her.

Chechnyan leader wants Ukraine cities ‘wiped off the face of the Earth’

The Kremlin-backed head of the Russian region of Chechnya says the Russian military should destroy Ukraine cities in retaliation for Ukrainian shelling of Russian towns along the border.

Authorities in Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions have reported Ukrainian shelling that damaged infrastructure and residential buildings.  Ramzan Kadyrov said on Telegram that if a “shell flies into our region, entire cities must be wiped off the face of the Earth so that they don’t ever think that they can fire in our direction.”

Kadyrov has been a frequent critic of the Russian military effort. Earlier this month, Kadyrov blasted Colonel-General Alexander Lapin should be fired after retreating from the Donetsk region city of Lyman.

“If I had my way I would have demoted Lapin to private, would have deprived him of his awards and would have sent him to the front line to wash off his shame with the rifle in his hands,” Kadyrov wrote on Telegram.

IAEA to inspect two Ukrainian nuke plants after ‘dirty bomb’ claims 

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said the agency is preparing to inspect two Ukrainian nuclear facilities amid Russia’s claims that Ukraine is developing a “dirty bomb.” Ukraine requested the inspection after its nuclear energy company Energoatom claimed that Russia was carrying out unauthorized construction work near the Zaporizhzhia plant’s Dry Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility. Energoatom warned that destruction of containers stored there could lead to radiation contamination over hundreds of square miles.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Russian helicopters taking a beating; Brittney Griner loses ‘sham’ appeal: Live Ukraine updates