On Monday, the leader of Russia’s Wagner Group said Bakhmut’s mercenary forces would withdraw from the ravaged eastern Ukraine city by the end of the month, suggesting the Russian Defense Ministry would send generals to hold the city. This further heightened the confusion over Bahmut’s status.
Wagner’s founder, Evgeny Prigozhin, has repeatedly criticized the Ministry of Defense for its incompetence and blamed its leaders for failing to manage the territories occupied by Wagner’s forces. His announcement came after he and the ministry claimed on Saturday that Mr Bakmut was “completely subdued” after months of heavy fighting.
President Volodymyr Zelensky appears to have confirmed the allegations on Sunday, after which the president’s office announced the military. continue to control a small part of the city. On Monday, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hannah Mariar said Ukrainian forces had captured the northern and southern hills and were beginning to encircle Bakhmut.
“With the help of propaganda, they pretend they have the whole city under their control, but they don’t,” she said.
Bahmut, with a population of 70,000 before it became an important focus of the war, was effectively abandoned.
“We need to understand. Nothing is left,” Mr. Zhelesunky said on Sunday.
Ukrainian military leaders say their resistance limited Russia’s capabilities in other areas and helped enable Ukraine’s advance.
“The main idea is to exhaust them and then attack,” Ukrainian Colonel Evgen Mezhevikin, commander of the specialized forces fighting in Bakhmut, said Thursday.
Developmental status:
Brazil’s President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva has urged the United Nations to hold a summit on war next month without waiting for a high-level meeting scheduled for September.
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the Wagner Group fighters and the Russian army for their efforts in Bakhmut, which Russia calls Artyomovsk, saying that “everyone who has distinguished himself in battle will be nominated for the state medal”. promised.
Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant ran for hours on Monday on emergency diesel generators after the seventh loss of off-site power since the start of the war. “The nuclear safety situation at the plant is extremely fragile,” tweeted Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency. “We have to agree to protect[plants]now.”
Portugal intends to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets, but sending fighters “is not on the table”, Foreign Minister João Gómez Claviño said. Diario de Noticias newspaper.
Three people have been killed and 14 injured in Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day, Ukrainian officials said. The Ukrainian Air Force said it had shot down 20 Russian drones and four cruise missiles.
UK: Russian military dissatisfied with air force performance
Russia appears to be creating a new elite strike group, code-named “Sturm”, to operate over Ukraine. The unit will consist of at least one fighter-bomber squadron and one attack helicopter squadron, according to the UK Ministry of Defense. The mix of aircraft types suggests that the group will primarily serve ground-attack missions, according to the ministry’s latest war assessment. According to the newspaper, “reliable” Russian media reports said the defense ministry wanted to attract highly skilled and motivated pilots by offering high salary incentives and starting to recruit retired aviators. He is suggesting that he is thinking.
“The creation of this group highlights how Russia perceives Regular Air Force squadrons to be significantly underperforming their core function of conducting airstrikes on the Ukrainian front,” the update said. and
Russia vs. Russia in the Battle of the Belgorod Border
The Ukrainian Intelligence Service has confirmed that the pro-Ukrainian Russian Freedom Corps and the Russian Militia are operating in Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine. Fighters, Russian military defectors and other Russian volunteers in the Ukrainian army have occupied Russian villages to create “safe zones” to protect Ukrainian citizens, according to the agency’s spokesman Andriy Yusov. It is said that there is
“The corps and (the militias) have established a demilitarized zone on the border with the Russian Federation, from which Ukraine cannot be shelled,” the corps said in a statement. “In the future, all of Russia will move towards liberating Russia from Putin’s dictatorship and ending the criminal war.”
Russian regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov described the effort as terrorism and introduced restrictions aimed at increasing security. He said Russian security forces were taking “necessary measures to eliminate the enemy”. TASS reported.. He also said most of the border village residents had left the area.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the attack was Kiev’s attempt to minimize the political consequences of what Russia claims was the collapse of Bakhmut over the weekend.
Israeli-like security model considered for Ukraine, documented in report
Before Ukraine gains NATO membership, if it does, it will be a process that will take years, but military alliance leaders and the United States are considering Ukraine through a security model similar to Israel’s. can defend its sovereignty. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
The newspaper said the plan, if implemented, would strengthen Ukraine’s defenses through continued supplies of Western weapons and advanced technology, but would not go so far as to call for NATO intervention in the event of a conflict with Russia. said.
Citing Polish President Andrzej Duda, the newspaper reported that the security deal was signed by President Joe Biden and is gaining support for the agenda of the NATO summit in July. ”
Oligarchs bypass sanctions, continue to fly private jets
An analysis of the sanctions that allowed the seizure of planes owned by wealthy Russian oligarchs shows that many planes continue to fly freely around the world.Analysis by telegraph paper In the UK, this indicates that many aircraft were moved to friendlier areas before the seizure occurred. Other riders left the grid and were registered with different tail numbers. The number of private jet registrations surged last year, according to data from the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency. Sandeep Bariga, an economics professor at Northwestern University, said the opportunity to stop the war by sanctioning the oligarchy against Putin has passed.
“What could have happened when the war started didn’t happen,” Barriga told The Telegraph. “Now the war is on and the elites in power fear their lives if they surrender to the West.”
Russia issues warrant for Ukraine-backed actor
The Russian Interior Ministry has issued a felony arrest warrant for Moscow-born movie star Alexei Panin. Earlier this month, TASS news agency reported that Panin was being investigated for remarks that “justified a terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge”. “You can’t hide it,” Panin wrote in a telegram after an explosion that severely damaged a Russian-built bridge in October. Panin lives in Moscow, but he has reportedly been living in Spain since 2020.
In 2015, Ukraine accused Panin of “violating the country’s territorial integrity” after speaking out in support of the actions of Russian authorities after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Panin later publicly apologized to the Ukrainian people, saying Russia had “started a war that no one needed”. ”
Contributors: Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY. Associated Press
