[ad_1]
Head of Wagner group says he has been promised more ammunition
The head of the Wagner group has said he has been promised as much ammunition and weaponry as he needs to continue his assault on the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
Yevgeny Prigozhin made the comment in a recorded message posted on his Telegram channel on Sunday morning.
It comes just days after he announced plans to withdraw from Bakhmut, a strategically important city in Ukraine’s east that has been the scene of heavy fighting in recent months, saying the group was suffering “useless and unjustified losses”.
That announcement followed an expletive-laden video in which Prigozhin complained his forces were not being well supplied and criticised the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, by name.
Standing in a field surrounded by dead bodies, he said: “They came here as volunteers and die for you to fatten yourselves in your mahogany offices.”
Key events
Ukraine’s leadership has been privately warned by Petr Pavel, the president of the Czech Republic – a decorated retired general who was previously Nato’s principal military adviser – against the disaster of a rushed counteroffensive.
In recent meetings in Kyiv with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, Pavel had cautioned they no longer had the element of surprise that had aided successful assaults on the eastern city of Kharkiv and southern region of Kherson last year.
“It will be extremely harmful to Ukraine if this counteroffensive fails, because they will not have another chance, at least not this year,” Pavel said in an interview during a visit to London for King Charles’s coronation.
Read the full story here:
Nationalist writer Prilepin out of coma after car explosion
Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin, who was injured in a car explosion on Saturday, has been brought out of a medically-induced coma, according to local officials.
Prilepin was taken to hospital after his Audi Q7 blew up in a village in the Nizhny Novgorod region, about 250 miles (400km) east of Moscow. His driver was killed in the explosion.
Writing on Telegram, the regional governor, Gleb Nikitin, said: “About Zakhar’s condition: he was taken out of a medically-induced coma, he is conscious, according to doctors.
“His condition is stable, his mood is cheerful.”
Prilepin is a novelist and an outspoken champion of Russia’s war in Ukraine. He is the third prominent pro-war figure to have been targeted by a bomb since Russia’s full-scale invasion began last year.
The Zaporizhzhia region has been hit by 75 strikes over the past day, according to local authorities.
The region has been the scene of fighting for much of the last year and is also home to the Zaporizhzhia power plant, the largest nuclear plant in Europe, prompting concern about the risk of a nuclear accident if the plant is damaged.
The Zaporizhzhia military administration said on Telegram that 16 settlements along the frontline had been hit by artillery and anti-aircraft shells, though it added that there were no casualties.
Head of Wagner group says he has been promised more ammunition
The head of the Wagner group has said he has been promised as much ammunition and weaponry as he needs to continue his assault on the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
Yevgeny Prigozhin made the comment in a recorded message posted on his Telegram channel on Sunday morning.
It comes just days after he announced plans to withdraw from Bakhmut, a strategically important city in Ukraine’s east that has been the scene of heavy fighting in recent months, saying the group was suffering “useless and unjustified losses”.
That announcement followed an expletive-laden video in which Prigozhin complained his forces were not being well supplied and criticised the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov, by name.
Standing in a field surrounded by dead bodies, he said: “They came here as volunteers and die for you to fatten yourselves in your mahogany offices.”
When Vladimir Putin takes to the stage on Tuesday to commemorate the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, his speech on Red Square will have been preceded by a turbulent week in which drones attacked the Kremlin and one of his top war leaders threatened mutiny.
The dramatic footage early last Wednesday of two drones flying over the walls of the Kremlin, its historical seat of power, exposed vulnerabilities in the heart of the Russian capital, putting Moscow on edge.
The authorities have banned the use of drones and started jamming GPS signals, leading to taxis appearing to be in the Moscow River on ride-hailing apps. Binoculars have hastily been handed out to police to spot incoming drones.
“There is a nervousness that I have never seen before,” said one official at the Moscow mayor’s office. “But Victory Day has to go ahead, there is no other option,” he added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Read the full story here:
Air defence systems shot down a Russian drone over Kyiv overnight, according to the Ukrainian military.
It comes after a night on which air raid alerts sounded for several hours in roughly two thirds of Ukraine.
Posting on Telegram, the Kyiv City Military Administration said that, during the alert, “an enemy reconnaissance UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] was detected in the airspace of Kyiv” and “destroyed by air defence forces”.
The update also said it was still unclear whether the incident had caused any injuries or damage.
One person killed by shelling in the Dnipro region
One person has been killed and two have been injured by shelling in the Dnipro region of southern Ukraine, the local governor has said.
Writing on Telegram, Serhii Lysak said more than ten shells were fired overnight at the village of Nikopol. The village sits on the northern bank of the Dnipro River, which marks the approximate border between Ukrainian- and Russian-controlled territory in the region.
Lysak said that a 72-year-old woman had been killed and that two people were being treated for stress and concussion.
“The herd of murderers from the aggressor country must answer for each of their crimes!” he said.
Russia is almost certainly facing its worst labour shortage in decades, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
In its latest intelligence update, the ministry said that, over the last three years, Russia’s population has declined by 2 million more than expected, a fall it attributed to the impact of the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
It said that up to 1.2 million people left the country in 2022, including many younger and well-educated people in high-value industries, and about 10% of the IT workforce.
A gas pipeline and power lines in the Russian border region of Belgorod were damaged in overnight shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces, according to the local governor.
Posting on Telegram, Vyacheslav Gladkov said the shelling also damaged a house in the village of Spodaryushino, though he added that no one had been injured.
Gladkov is a member of the United Russia party, which backs President Vladimir Putin. The Guardian has not been able to independently verify the report.
Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia or on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine, but Belgorod is one of a number of regions in southern Russia where targets such as fuel and ammunition stores have been hit by explosions since the beginning of the war.
Total Russian casualties pass 193,000, says Ukraine
The number of Russian soldiers killed or injured since the start of the war stands at 193,430, according to latest estimates from the Ukrainian military.
The figure is up 660 on yesterday.
The update also said a further six tanks and 10 armoured personnel vehicles had been destroyed, bringing the totals to 3,723 and 7,248 respectively.
Загальні бойові втрати противника з 24.02.22 по 07.05.23 орієнтовно склали / The total combat losses of the enemy from 24.02.22 to 07.05.23 were approximately pic.twitter.com/2NH5GoKGwe
— Генеральний штаб ЗСУ (@GeneralStaffUA) May 7, 2023
Evacuations from the frontline around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have prompted safety warnings from the UN nuclear watchdog, as a string of recent strikes escalate predictions of a looming spring counteroffensive.
Agence France-Presse reports that Moscow has blamed Kyiv – and its western supporters – for the growing number of long-range attacks and sabotage operations, including on the Kremlin.
A car bomb on Saturday wounded the prominent nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin and killed his assistant in an attack Moscow blamed on both Kyiv and Washington.
Citing stepped-up shellings by Kyiv, Moscow has ordered families with children and elderly relatives to temporarily evacuate a slew of Russian-held areas in southern Ukraine, including the town near Europe’s largest nuclear plant.
“The general situation in the area near the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant is becoming increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous,” the IAEA chief, Rafael Grossi, said in a statement on Saturday.
I’m extremely concerned about the very real nuclear safety and security risks facing the plant.
The removal order has led to “a mad panic and no less mad queues” at the checkpoint into Russian-annexed Crimea, said Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia province.
With buses ferrying people out every 20 to 30 minutes, he said, stations had been drained of gasoline.
Fedorov wrote on Telegram:
The partial evacuation they announced is going too fast, and there is a possibility that they may be preparing for provocations and [for that reason] focusing on civilians.
Air raid alerts sounded for several hours overnight into early Sunday over roughly two-thirds of Ukraine, with officials saying air defence systems shot down a number of drones, including one over Kyiv’s airspace.
Reuters reported that the military administration of Ukraine’s capital said on Telegram:
During the last air alert, an enemy reconnaissance UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] was detected in the airspace of Kyiv. The drone was destroyed … Preliminarily, there have been no casualties or destruction.
The alerts extended from Kyiv and regions to the west of it through to all regions in the east as well as south to Kherson region and Russian-annexed Crimea.
Local officials in several Ukrainian regions reported that air defence systems were deployed overnight, but there was no immediate information early on Sunday on potential casualties or damages.
Ukraine launches wave of drones at Crimea, says governor
Ukraine launched more than 10 drones overnight on the Crimean Peninsula, including three on the port of Sevastopol, a Russian-installed official said early on Sunday, adding that air defence systems repelled all the attacks on Sevastopol.
Reuters reports that the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said on Telegram: “No objects [in Sevastopol] were damaged.”
There were no immediate details of any damage from the strikes elsewhere on the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Baza, a Telegram channel with links to Russia’s law enforcement agencies, reported earlier on Sunday that according to the channel’s preliminary information, there were no casualties in what it said was a series of attacks on Crimea.
According to Ukrainian monitoring of Telegram channels, explosions took place in Sevastopol and Saki – where Russia has an air base – as well as a few other places.
Strikes on Russian-held targets have intensified in the past two weeks, especially in Crimea. Ukraine, without confirming any role in those attacks, says destroying infrastructure is preparation for its planned ground assault.
Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine. I’m Adam Fulton and here’s a roundup of the latest developments.
Ukraine launched more than 10 drones overnight on the Crimean peninsula, including three on the port of Sevastopol, according to a Russian-installed official. Air defence systems repelled all the attacks on Sevastopol, the governor said.
There were no immediate details of any damage from the attacks elsewhere on the Crimean peninsula.
More on that story shortly. In other news:
-
A prominent Russian nationalist writer, Zakhar Prilepin, was wounded in a car bombing that killed his driver. The attack took place on Saturday in the Nizhny Novgorod region, about 400km (250 miles) east of Moscow. Russia’s foreign ministry accused Ukraine, while Ukraine’s security services refused to confirm or deny involvement. A senior Ukrainian official accused Russia of staging the attack.
-
Ukrainian officials issued air raid alerts on Saturday evening for areas covering about two-thirds of the country. The alerts extended from the capital, Kyiv, and regions to the west of it through all regions in the east as well as south to Kherson region and Russian-annexed Crimea.
-
Ukraine hailed the return of 45 Azov battalion fighters captured during the battle for Mariupol while Russia said three of its pilots had been released by Kyiv. The freed Ukrainian prisoners included 42 men and three women from the Azov battalion, said Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office.
-
Russia has been accused of attacking the besieged city of Bakhmut with incendiary phosphorus weapons, BBC News reported. Ukraine’s military shared drone footage of what appeared to be fires in Bakhmut as white phosphorus rained down.
-
Ukraine’s air force claims to have downed a Russian hypersonic missile over Kyiv using newly acquired American Patriot defence systems, the first known time the country has been able to intercept one of Moscow’s most modern missiles. Air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk said the Kinzhal-type ballistic missile was intercepted over the Ukrainian capital during the week.
-
Russian shelling killed six Ukrainian demining experts in the southern Kherson region, Ukrainian emergency services has said. Two others members of the team were injured, along with a nurse, and were being treated in hospital.
-
A 56-hour curfew is in place in Kherson, which saw some residents leaving the southern Ukrainian city on Friday before it came into effect. The announcement of the curfew, lasting until Monday morning, prompted speculation in the city that it was about to be used as a launch point for Ukraine’s much-anticipated counterattack.
-
Russia is “still not satisfied” with how the issue of Russian agricultural exports as part of the Black Sea grain deal is being resolved, Tass news agency quoted the deputy foreign minister, Sergey Vershinin, as saying on Saturday after the latest talks with a top UN official.
-
Poland will demand European Union sanctions on imports of Russian farm products, its ambassador to the EU has said. “Europe isn’t threatened by disruptions in supply chain of farm products now – contrary, we have a problem of surpluses,” Andrzej Sadoś was quoted by PAP news agency as saying. “We are resolving a problem of increased imports of farm products from Ukraine.”
-
Switzerland’s parliament has approved a request from Ukrainian authorities for Volodymyr Zelenskiy to address it. The invitation comes amid pressure on Switzerland’s government to break with a centuries-old tradition of neutrality and end a ban of exports of Swiss weapons to conflict zones such as Ukraine.
-
Ukraine sent its first lady, Olena Zelenska, and the Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, as the country’s representatives to King Charles’s coronation in London on Saturday. Zelenska posted on Facebook: “It is an honour for us and prime minister Denys Shmyhal to attend the coronation … to wish on behalf of all of Ukraine successful governance and prosperity to the country.”
[ad_2]
Source link
