August 25, 2023 at 2:01 a.m. EDT
In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder stated Prigozhin was “probably” killed within the aircraft crash, in keeping with an preliminary U.S. evaluation.
Right here’s the most recent on the struggle and its ripple results throughout the globe.
There isn’t a indication up to now that the aircraft was downed by a missile, in keeping with U.S. officers who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate a preliminary evaluation. An explosion was detected alongside the trail of the aircraft, however there are not any indicators of a missile launch, they stated. The early uncertainty leaves open the likelihood that the aircraft was sabotaged someway, however exactly what occurred stays unclear, The Washington Submit reported.
Jailed Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny referred to as the crash “a terrorist assault.” Navalny stated Putin had “organized to kill his soldier Prigozhin.” Navalny’s assertion follows widespread hypothesis that the Wagner boss’s presumed demise was a revenge killing ordered by the Kremlin in response to Prigozhin’s short-lived mutiny two months in the past, probably the most critical problem to Putin’s rule in many years.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied Ukraine’s involvement within the crash. “You already know when Ukraine was talking and reaching out to the nations of the world concerning the planes, that’s not what we had in thoughts,” Zelensky stated jokingly in a video, referring to Ukraine’s requests for aerial assist, such because the F-16 fighters Kyiv has been repeatedly asking the West to offer. “We wished assist, though maybe [the plane incident] may also assist in some sense of the phrase,” he added.
The US will start instructing Ukrainian pilots in flying F-16 plane in Arizona in October, the Pentagon stated. In a cellphone name with Zelensky, President Biden additionally pledged to expedite U.S. approvals for different nations in search of to switch their F-16s to Ukraine, “upon completion of coaching” of Ukrainian pilots.
Zelensky expressed due to the USA in the course of the name, which occurred on Ukraine’s Independence Day on Thursday. The US “took the lead in rallying world assist for Ukraine,” Zelensky stated. “This important management enabled our wrestle and bent the arc of historical past towards good. Collectively, we show that freedom and independence are value combating for.”
Ukraine is in search of armored medical evacuation automobiles from its supporters, Zelensky stated, in keeping with his workplace late Thursday. The remarks come as Ukraine’s medical professionals are struggling to maintain up with an improve in mine accidents for the reason that begin of the counteroffensive in June.
Russia’s Protection Ministry stated its troops had thwarted greater than three dozen Ukrainian drones over Crimea, the peninsula Russia annexed illegally in 2014. Of the 42 drones Russian air protection techniques detected, 9 have been destroyed whereas 33 “have been suppressed by digital warfare” and crashed with out reaching their targets, the ministry stated.
Norway will give an undetermined variety of F-16 fighters to Ukraine, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Retailer stated. “Now we have already determined to coach Ukrainian fighter jet pilots and introduced in the summertime that we would supply two Norwegian F-16 jets for coaching functions,” he stated. Norway will disclose additional particulars about further F-16 donations to Ukraine on a later date, he added.
The US levied sanctions in opposition to Russians linked to the forcible deportation of Ukraine’s youngsters. “Youngsters are probably the most harmless victims of struggle: we now have not forgotten Ukraine’s youngsters,” the State Division stated in a press release saying the brand new penalties in opposition to greater than a dozen people and entities.
Prigozhin’s presumed demise casts destiny of Wagner’s operations unsure: The obvious deaths of Prigozhin and his high lieutenants has introduced the Wagner mercenary group to an finish, Mary Ilyushina and Francesca Ebel report. However the query stays: Which remnants of Wagner’s once-sprawling empire will Putin take over?
As a company, Wagner is “actually completed,” stated David Lewis, a professor of worldwide politics at England’s College of Exeter who has researched the group’s illicit enterprise networks in Africa. Prigozhin could be “unimaginable to exchange,” he stated. However the Kremlin will search to duplicate Wagner’s mix of mercenaries, worthwhile enterprise, smuggling and disinformation campaigns, he added.
