Right here’s the most recent on the struggle and its ripple results throughout the globe.
Lukashenko claimed he had instructed Prigozhin that he might assure his “full safety” by talking with Putin and extracting him to Belarus, however that the mercenary group chief by no means took up his supply, in accordance with a report revealed Friday in Belarusian state information company BelTA. Prigozhin’s dying has but to be confirmed, however his title was on the passenger record for the Embraer jet earlier than it crashed, Russian aviation officers mentioned.
Proof doesn’t recommend a easy mechanical downside or human error induced the aircraft crash, aviation consultants instructed The Washington Submit, although they mentioned there may be not sufficient info out there to attract a definitive conclusion. Early assessments by U.S. officers prompt the potential of an onboard explosion.
Three Ukrainian pilots have been killed in a midair collision throughout a fight mission Friday, authorities authorities mentioned. The 2 L-39 fight coaching plane collided close to Zhytomyr, in accordance with the Ukrainian air power. One of many pilots killed, who had the decision signal “Juice,” had described to The Submit in April 2022 how Ukrainian fliers have been heading off Russian invaders.
At the least 4 folks have been killed in assaults throughout Ukraine prior to now day, together with two within the Kharkiv area, one within the Kherson area and one within the Zaporizhzhia area. One of many victims, who lived in Kherson, was an 83-year-old lady who died after Russian shelling set her residence ablaze, the area’s governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, mentioned on Telegram.
Ukrainian and Russian sea and air forces have had a number of confrontations “round strategically essential fuel and oil platforms” within the Black Sea, the British Protection Ministry mentioned Sunday. The “skirmishes” embrace a Russian fight jet that “shot at a Ukrainian army small boat working close to a platform within the north-west of the ocean” final week, the ministry mentioned. The platforms, together with the one from final week’s incident — which was operated by a Ukrainian oil and fuel firm that Russian forces seized once they occupied Crimea in 2014 — “command helpful hydrocarbon assets. Nonetheless, like Snake Island to the west, they will also be used as ahead deployment bases, helicopter touchdown websites, and to place long-range missile programs,” the ministry mentioned.
4 extra army officers in Ukraine have been detained as a part of an ongoing crackdown on corruption, Ukraine’s Safety Service mentioned on Telegram. The 4 people are accused of serving to folks evade the draft in change for cash.
Ukraine has been negotiating with america, United Kingdom and Canada to safe safety ensures from the Western powers, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned in his nightly deal with. “We have now began negotiations with Canada on a bilateral doc on safety ensures. Earlier we began with america and the UK,” Zelensky mentioned late Saturday. “It will give Ukraine way more alternatives. I’m grateful to each one that works for this!”
Journalist Evan Gershkovich has appealed a Moscow court docket’s determination to increase his detention by way of November, in accordance with Russian state information company Tass. Gershkovich is being held earlier than trial on espionage costs that each the U.S. authorities and the Wall Road Journal, his employer, say are baseless.
European Fee Govt Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis accused Russia of utilizing “grain as a weapon,” Reuters reported on Saturday, and he additionally urged the nation to return to the Black Sea Grain Initiative after it pulled out final month.
Evaluation from our correspondents
Prigozhin’s lingering reputation is posing a problem for Putin: Russians mourning the Wagner Group chief’s presumed dying have arrange memorials in practically two dozen cities throughout the nation and in occupied Ukraine in current days — an indication of the commander’s lingering reputation and a possible problem for President Vladimir Putin, who’s at the moment going through divisions throughout the elite and within the army, Robyn Dixon writes.
“Prigozhin, regardless of declaring loyalty to Putin, put his regime in jeopardy and confirmed his weak spot for which he acquired the inevitable punishment. I feel the elites understood this sign very effectively,” mentioned Dmitry Kolezev, a Russian analyst and impartial journalist who left Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. “On the similar time, there’s a broader viewers of army activists, supporters of the Wagner PMC and Wagner veterans, amongst whom there’s a cult of Prigozhin,” he added.
