Concert pianist Pavel Kushnir, 39, died on July 28 from a hunger strike in detention in eastern Russia

Monday’s Coverage: Zelenskiy — Ukrainian Pilots Are Flying F-16s

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 0643 GMT:

In the latest purge of Russian military personnel, the head of the military’s theme park and a senior Defense Ministry official have been arrested.

Investigators said Patriot Park director Vyacheslav Akhmedov and Major General Vladimir Shesterov were “involved in the embezzlement of public funds allocated to ensure the activities and functioning of Patriot Park and [its] exhibition center”.

Patriot Park, in the town of Kubinka around 63 km (39 miles) west of Moscow, is a military theme park and exhibition center featuring interactive exhibits, displays of weapons and equipment, live-firing ranges, and a large Orthodox cathedral dedicated to the armed forces.

Former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, arrested in April on allegations of accepting 1 billion roubles ($12.2 million) in bribes, oversaw the construction of Patriot Park.

Ivanov was a close ally of Sergey Shoygu, who was removed as Defense Minister in May and is now Secretary of the National Security Council. Other senior military and civilian officials connected with Shoygu were arrested around the time of his replacement.

UPDATE 0604 GMT:

Ukraine’s air defenses downed 15 of 16 Iran-type attack drones and 4 of 6 missiles fired by Russia overnight.

The UAVs and missiles were intercepted over the Kyiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Khmelnytskyi regions.

In the Kyiv region, falling debris damaged an apartment block, an office building, and two gas stations.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: As the Kremlin freed 16 foreign nationals and Russian dissidents last Thursday in an exchange with Western countries, another political prisoner in Russia was dying from a hunger strike.

Claims of the death of Pavel Kushnir, 39, a pianist and anti-war activist, circulated last weekend. His mother Irina Levina confirmed the reports on Monday.

I was informed by the [State security service] FSB investigator in Birobidzhan. [My son died on] July 28 of this year. From a hunger strike.

They say they helped. They say there were IVs and they tried to support him somehow, but apparently it wasn’t enough.

Officials have not spoken about Kushnir’s demise, let alone given a cause.

Kushnir was seized by officers of the State security service FSB in May. Authorities claimed he was calling for “terrorist activities” in YouTube videos where he spoke out against Vladimir Putin’s 29-month. invasion of Ukraine.

The activist was held in a pre-trial detention center in Birobidzhan in the Jewish autonomous district, a remote region of Russia’s Far East. The European Union called his detention a shocking case of political repression.

Kushnir was an accomplished concert pianist who had studied at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He was a soloist with several regional philharmonic orchestras, and with playing with the Birobidzhan Regional Philharmonic when he was detained.