WARSAW, Poland (AP) — When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, reporters from around the world rushed to the Polish-Ukrainian border to cover an exodus of refugees fleeing Russian bombs.
Among them was Pablo González, a freelance journalist from Spain who had been based in Poland since 2019, working for Spanish news agency EFE, Voice of America and other outlets. Warsaw-based reporters knew him as an outgoing colleague who liked to drink beer and sing karaoke into the wee hours of the morning.
Two and a half years later, he was sent to Moscow as part of a prisoner swap, leaving behind both mysteries about who he really was and concerns about how Poland handled a case in which he was accused of being a Russian agent.
In the first days of the war, González provided stand-up reports to TV viewers in Spain against a backdrop of refugees arriving at the train station in the Polish border town of Przemysl.
But less than week into the war, Polish security agents entered the room he was staying in and arrested him. They accused him of “participating in foreign intelligence activities against Poland” and said he was an agent of the GRU, Russian military intelligence.
Friends were astonished — and, as Poland held González without trial for months that turned into years, some grew skeptical and organized protests in Spain demanding his release. Authorities have never detailed the accusations.
But on Thursday evening, the burly 42-year-old with a shaved head and beard was welcomed home by President Vladimir Putin after being freed in the largest prisoner swap since the Soviet era.
His inclusion in the deal appears to confirm suspicions that González was a Russian operative using his cover as a journalist.
Born Pavel Rubtsov in 1982 in then-Soviet Moscow, González went to Spain with his Spanish mother at age 9, where he became a citizen and received the Spanish name of Pablo González Yagüe. He went into journalism, working for outlets Público, La Sexta and Gara, a Basque nationalist newspaper.
It's not clear what led Poland to arrest him. The investigation remains classified and the spokesman for the secret services told The Associated Press that he could not say anything beyond what was in a brief statement. Poland is on high alert after a string of arrests of espionage suspects and sabotage, part of what the authorities view as hybrid warfare by Russia and Belarus against the West.
Polish security services said Poland included him in the deal due to the close Polish-American alliance and “common security interests.” In their statement, they said that "Pavel Rubtsov, a GRU officer arrested in Poland in 2022, (had been) carrying out intelligence tasks in Europe.”
The head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency MI6, Sir Richard Moore, said at the Aspen Security Forum in 2022 that González was an “illegal” who was arrested in Poland after “masquerading as a Spanish journalist.”
The term “illegal” refers to spies who operate under non-official cover, meaning that they don't benefit from diplomatic immunity.
“He was trying to go into Ukraine to be part of their destabilizing efforts there,” Moore said.
Another hint at his activities came from independent Russian outlet Agentstvo, which reported that in 2016 Rubtsov befriended and spied on Zhanna Nemtsova, the daughter of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was murdered in Moscow in 2015.
Poland-based journalists who knew González said he used his base in Poland to travel to former Soviet countries including Ukraine and Georgia. He had a license to operate a drone and used it to film Auschwitz-Birkenau from the air for coverage on the 75th anniversary of the death camp's liberation in 2020.
Voice of America, a U.S.-government funded organization, confirmed that he worked briefly for them, but they have since removed any of his work from their website.
“Pablo González contributed to a few VOA stories as a freelancer over a relatively short period of time starting in late 2020," spokesperson Emily Webb said in reply to an emailed query. "As a freelancer who provided content to a number of media outlets, his services were arranged through a third-party company used by news organizations around the world."
“At no time did he have any access to any VOA systems or VOA credentials,” Webb said. "As soon as VOA learned of the allegations, we removed his material.”
Because Poland's justice system was politicized under a populist government that ruled from 2015-23, some activists worried about whether his rights were respected. Reporters Without Borders was among the groups that called for him to be put on trial or released.
The group stands by its position that he should not have been held that long without trial. “You are innocent until a trial proves you guilty,” Alfonso Bauluz, the head of the group's office in Spain told AP on Friday. He expressed frustration at the silence around the case, and the fact that there will apparently not be a trial at all, saying Poland has not presented the evidence it has against him.
But the group also says it expects González to provide an explanation now that he is free.
Jaap Arriens, a Dutch video journalist based in Warsaw, hung out with the man he knew as Pablo in Warsaw and Kyiv, as well as in Przemysl shortly before his arrest.
Arriens described him as a friendly, funny man with a macho demeanor and a chest covered in tattoos that he once showed off in a bar.
González mostly fit in, but seemed better-off than the average freelance journalist. He always seemed to have the newest and most expensive phones and computers, working at the Poland-Ukraine border with the latest 14-inch MacBook Pro. He had plenty of money to spend in bars.
He recalled González once saying: “Life is good, life is almost too good.”
"And I thought: ‘Man, freelance life is never too good. What are you talking about?’ I don't know any freelancer who talks like this.”
González, whose grandfather emigrated from Spain to the Soviet Union as a child during the Spanish Civil War, was known as a Basque nationalist with ties to the region's independence movement.
Russia is suspected of supporting separatist movements in Spain and elsewhere in an effort to destabilize Europe.
González's wife in Spain had been advocating on his behalf during his detention in Poland, even though they were not living together at the time of his arrest.
Over the past years, supporters ran an account on Twitter, now X, to advocate for his release.
When the Russian government announced that Pavel Rubtsov had arrived in Moscow on Thursday, the @FreePabloGonzález account tweeted: “This is our last tweet: Pablo is finally free. Endless thanks to all.”
Those who have followed the case are now awaiting his next moves.
He has Spanish citizenship — and the right to return to the European Union. His wife was quoted in Spanish media saying she hopes he can return to Spain.
A man identified as Pablo González, a freelance journalist from Spain who had been based in Poland since 2019, second from left with shaved head, listens to Russian President Vladimir Putin, back to a camera, speaking to released Russian prisoners, part of the biggest prisoner swap between the United States and Russia in post-Soviet history, upon their arrival at the Vnukovo government airport outside Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. Gonzalez had another passport and another name: Pavel Rubtsov. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
An Israeli airstrike hit a mosque in central Gaza and Palestinian officials said at least 19 people were killed early Sunday. Israeli planes also lit up the skyline across the southern suburbs of Beirut, striking what the military said were Hezbollah targets.
The strike in Gaza hit a mosque where displaced people were sheltering near the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. Another four people were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people near the town.
The Israeli military said both strikes targeted militants, without providing evidence.
An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead from the strike on the mosque were all men, while another man was wounded.
In Beirut, the strikes reportedly targeted a building near a road leading to Lebanon’s only international airport and another formerly used by the Hezbollah-run broadcaster Al-Manar.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. As the Israel-Hamas war reaches the one-year mark, nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in the latest conflict, most of them since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Here is the latest:
BEIRUT — U.N. refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi says Lebanon is seeing a “major displacement crisis” as a result of Israel’s escalating air campaign in the country and that some of the strikes have violated international law.
Grandi made his remarks during a visit to Beirut on Sunday.
Lebanese government officials estimate that 1.2 million people are now displaced. The U.N. has appealed for money to respond to the humanitarian crisis. About 40% has been funded so far.
The UNHCR head also said there had been “many instances of violations of international humanitarian law in the way the airstrikes have been conducted that have destroyed or damaged civilian infrastructure.”
Two UNHCR workers have also been killed in the strikes.
Grandi said that a strike that cut access to a major border crossing between Lebanon and Syria had also created an obstacle for civilians attempting to flee to safety.
Israel has maintained that it is targeting Hezbollah figures and weapons in the airstrikes and ground incursion it has launched in Lebanon.
The escalating violence has pushed both Lebanese citizens and Syrian refugees in Lebanon to cross the border en masse.
RABAT, Morocco — Thousands of people have demonstrated in the streets of Morocco’s capital to call for justice for the Palestinians and for the Moroccan government to revoke its 2020 agreement formalizing its ties with Israel.
The North African nation has had — since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas — some of the Arab world’s largest protests.
A diverse group — including students, Islamists, leftists, attorneys and unions — have poured into the streets of the country’s cities and towns in an expression of support for Palestinians in Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.
“I don’t know who is next, probably in Syria or any other country. Maybe it’s our turn next,” said Houria, a demonstrator from northern Morocco.
Morocco’s government has spoken out against the war but retained its ties with Israel. Authorities have for the most part permitted protests yet pursued charges against demonstrators who have blocked the entrance to businesses or implicated the monarchy in their demands.
The protest in Rabat was among the largest demonstrations in months. Moroccans from throughout the country gathered in Rabat to march past the country’s parliament.
They protested against President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and carried large banners of Arab leaders killed during the conflict, including Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh and longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
SAO PAULO, Brazil — A plane carrying Brazilians fleeing Lebanon has landed in Brazil, according to a statement from the Brazilian Air Force.
The plane touched ground in Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos airport Sunday. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was at the scene to welcome them.
The flight, the first Brazil has organized to assist its nationals, was carrying 228 passengers including 10 infants, as well as three pets.
A second flight is scheduled for next week but will depend on security conditions on the ground, the foreign ministry said.
Around 21,000 Brazilians live in Lebanon, which is home to the largest community of Brazilians in the Middle East. Two Brazilian adolescents have been killed by Israeli bombardments in Lebanon.
BERLIN — On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel, hundreds of demonstrators marched behind a banner that read “Against all antisemitism,” accompanied by a police escort.
With scores of Israeli flags waving over head, some Jewish leaders led a song about “shalom” — peace — while marchers chanted “Free Gaza from Hamas!” and “Bring them home,” referring to hostages still held by Hamas militants in Gaza.
Another chant, “Rape is not resistance!” decried the sexual violence that occurred during the attack. Survivors have given The Associated Press numerous accounts of sexual atrocities committed during that day and a U.N. report released in March said there are “reasonable grounds” to believe Hamas committed rape, “sexualized torture,” and other cruel and inhumane treatment of women during its surprise attack.
Some in the crowd held up photos of hostages still held by Hamas. Photos of several women featured the word “Kidnapped” in German.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack and took another 250 hostage. They are still holding around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said one person was killed and 10 others were wounded in a stabbing and shooting attack in the southern city of Beersheba.
Sunday’s attack at the city’s central bus station came on the eve of the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel, which ignited the war in Gaza. The country is on high alert as it prepares to hold memorial ceremonies.
Israel’s police did not identify the assailant but said they were treating it as a terror attack. Palestinians have carried out a number of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks since the war began.
The attack comes a few days after seven people were killed in a shooting attack in Tel Aviv last Monday. In that attack, two Palestinian men opened fire on a crowd inside the city’s light rail and around the station before being killed by security forces in the area.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis issued a new appeal for peace “on every front” is his Sunday Angelus prayer and spoke of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas against Israel.
“Brothers and sisters, tomorrow it will be a year since the terrorist attack by Hamas against the people of Israel, to whom I renew my closeness,” the pontiff said. He called for the “immediate liberation" of the hostages still held in Gaza.
The pope called for a day of prayer and fasting on Monday, the first anniversary of the attack - which he said sparked a war that has taken a heavy toll on Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
“From that day the Middle East has fallen into worse suffering because of destructive military actions that continue to hit the Palestinian people,” the pontiff said. "It is most of all innocent civilians, they must receive the necessary humanitarian aid.”
The pope repeated his plea for “an immediate ceasefire on every front," including Lebanon.
"Let’s pray for Lebanese people, especially for the people in the south forced to leave their villages.”
TEL AVIV, Israel — Ahead of the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, the Israeli military on Sunday displayed thousands of weapons seized from the militant group.
The military, which created the display at a sprawling army base south of Tel Aviv, said it has retrieved more than 5,000 AK-47 assault rifles from Gaza and destroyed double that number, as well as seized thousands of other items including drones, explosives, RPGs, scuba equipment, machine guns, sniper rifles, anti-tank missiles and weapons manufactured both inside Gaza and in Iran, Russia and North Korea.
The army also displayed homemade explosives it said Hamas used to burst through the border barrier on Oct. 7. It said they were crafted specifically after years of studying Israel’s border during years of Hamas-organized violent protests along the fence, including as early as 2018.
“What Hamas did on Oct. 7 was storm Israel with all their abilities at one time,” said military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani. He said that the Israeli military had seized the weapons from Hamas, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, to study the types of weapons used as well as track where they came from.
As Israel prepares for a day of somber memorials marking a year since the attacks, the military said it was increasing troop presence in Israel’s south to protect memorials taking place along the Gaza border.
A large memorial planned by bereaved families was expected to draw a crowd of more than 40,000 in Tel Aviv, but will be broadcast with only direct family members and media in attendance due to warnings from the military of possible rocket attacks from Lebanon.
BEIRUT — The southern suburbs of Beirut were hit by more than 30 strikes overnight, the heaviest bombardment since Sept. 23, when Israel began a significant escalation in its air campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Sunday.
The targets included a gas station on the main highway leading to the Beirut airport and a warehouse for medical supplies, the agency said.
Some of the overnight strikes set off a long series of explosions, suggesting that ammunition stores may have been hit.
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron called for “a halt to arms exports for use in Gaza,” saying it's urgent to avoid escalating tensions in the region, his office said.
Macron drew strong criticism from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by saying "the priority is … that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza.” He made the comments in an interview with France Inter radio, which was recorded on Tuesday and aired Saturday.
France doesn’t deliver any weapons to Israel, Macron said.
Netanyahu released a video statement in which he called out the French president by name and referred to such calls as a “disgrace.”
In a statement, Macron’s office said “France is Israel’s unfailing friend. Mr. Netanyahu’s words are excessive and irrelevant to the friendship between France and Israel.”
“We must return to diplomatic solutions,” it added.
The statement also said that Macron had demonstrated his commitment to Israel's security when France mobilized its military resources in response to the Iranian attack. French authorities did not provided details about France’s role.
Macron has called for an immediate cease-fire in both Gaza and Lebanon.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An apparent Israeli airstrike early Sunday killed at least 18 people in central Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said.
The strike hit a mosque sheltering displaced people near the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the town of Deir al-Balah, the hospital said in a statement.
An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead were all men. Another two men were critically wounded, the hospital said.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment about the strike on the mosque.
The latest strikes add to the mounting Palestinian death toll in Gaza, which is now nearing 42,000 according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths, but many of the dead were women and children.
BEIRUT — Powerful new explosions rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs late Saturday as Israel expanded its bombardment in Lebanon, also striking a Palestinian refugee camp deep in the north for the first time as it targeted both Hezbollah and Hamas fighters.
Thousands of people in Lebanon, including Palestinian refugees, continued to flee the widening conflict in the region, while rallies were held around the world marking the approaching anniversary of the start of the war in Gaza.
The strong explosions began near midnight after Israel’s military urged residents to evacuate areas in Beirut’s Haret Hreik and Choueifat neighborhoods. AP video showed the blasts illuminating the densely populated southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. They followed a day of sporadic strikes and the nearly continuous buzz of reconnaissance drones.
Israel’s military confirmed it was striking targets near Beirut and said about 30 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory.
Moroccan women wave flags and chant slogans in support of Gaza and Lebanon during a protest in Rabat, Morocco, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024 (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
Smoke rises from a destroyed building at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A man checks the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Emergency workers inspect a building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Israeli soldiers pray at a staging area in northern Israel, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
An Israeli soldier prays at a staging area in northern Israel, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
People check the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Smoke rises from a destroyed building at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Mourners gather around the bodies of Palestinian men who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
