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ukrainenews · 11 months

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Update June 26, 2023

Under the cut:

The Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin has reappeared for the first time since abandoning his armed mutiny on Saturday evening, issuing a defiant 11-minute statement in which he defended the Wagner uprising and said that “society demanded it”. In the statement, Prigozhin denied that Wagner sought to topple Putin and said that the uprising had shown that there were “serious problems with security on the whole territory of our country”.

The US is expected to announce another military aid package to Ukraine totaling approximately $500 million, a US official told CNN.

Ukraine's military intelligence chief accused Russia on Tuesday of "mining" the cooling pond used to keep the reactors cool at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine's south.

EU countries on Monday agreed to increase the maximum size of a fund used to finance military aid for Ukraine by 3.5 billion euros ($3.8 billion) to 12 billion.

Russian intelligence services are investigating whether Western spy agencies played a role in the aborted mutiny by Wagner mercenary fighters on Saturday, the TASS news agency quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Monday.

Frontlines across Ukraine have seen heavy combat over the past two days, with more than 20 engagements occurring in areas in the Donetsk region – chiefly Lyman, Marinka and Bakhmut, according to the Ukrainian military.

In the statement, Prigozhin denied that Wagner sought to topple Putin and said that the uprising had shown that there were “serious problems with security on the whole territory of our country”.

“It was not our goal to overthrow the regime,” Prigozhin said in the voice memo, which was uploaded to his Concord Group’s Telegram page.

“We stopped at that moment, when it became clear that much blood would be spilled,” he continued, describing the progress of a military convoy that reached striking distance of Moscow. “That’s why we believe that the demonstration of what we were planning to do was enough. Our decision to turn back had two factors: we didn’t want to spill Russian blood. Secondly, we marched as a demonstration of our protest.”

He once again accused the Russian defence ministry of targeting his troops with artillery fire, calling it the “trigger for us to move out immediately”.

“The goal of the march was to not allow the destruction of the Wagner private military company and hold to account the officials who through their unprofessional actions have committed a massive number of errors. Society demanded it.”

Prigozhin acknowledged that his troops had killed Russian airmen during their uprising, saying they “regretted that they were required to carry out strikes against aircraft but they were hitting our forces with bombs and rocket strikes”.

He also claimed that the troops movement into Russia was a “masterclass” in how Russia should have carried out its 24 February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which failed to achieve its goal of taking Kyiv.

-The Guardian

The US is expected to announce another military aid package to Ukraine totaling approximately $500 million, a US official told CNN.

The aid, which is expected to be announced on Tuesday, will include additional Bradley and Stryker fighting vehicles, the official said, and will be provided to Ukraine via Presidential Drawdown Authority. Ukraine lost several armored vehicles in the early days of its counteroffensive, which US officials believe Ukrainian forces launched earlier this month.

The package comes as US officials continue to assess what impact the Wagner rebellion inside Russia will have on Russia’s war in Ukraine. US and western officials told CNN last week that the Ukrainian counteroffensive has not been meeting expectations, with Russian lines of defense proving well-fortified. Russian forces have also had success bogging down Ukrainian armor with missile attacks and mines and have been deploying air power more effectively.

The last package, announced earlier this month, was valued at about $325 million and included new air defense and rocket systems for Ukraine.

The US has provided more than $39 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's invasion in February 2022, including $22 billion in presidential drawdowns.

-CNN

Ukraine's military intelligence chief accused Russia on Tuesday of "mining" the cooling pond used to keep the reactors cool at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine's south.

The six-reactor complex, Europe's biggest nuclear plant, has been under occupation since shortly after Moscow's forces invaded in February last year.

"...Most terrifying is that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was additionally mined during that time... namely the cooling pond was mined," Kyrylo Budanov, head of the GUR agency, said on television, without providing evidence for his assertion.

Reuters requested comment from the Russian defence ministry.

The two sides have accused each other of shelling the plant and its environs, and international efforts to establish a demilitarised zone around the complex have failed so far.

Ukraine's Defence Ministry, meanwhile, dismissed as "null and void" a Russian suggestion that it could be building a "dirty bomb".

The ministry said the suggestion, made on Monday by Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service, was first advanced by Moscow last year.

The move was, a ministry statement said, aimed at "diverting attention from the clear defeats by occupation forces at the front and sowing distrust among Ukraine's Western allies".

"If Russia is talking about a 'dirty bomb', its use by Russia could be a real threat," the ministry said.

Naryshkin had called on the U.N. nuclear watchdog and the European Union to investigate the dispatch of "irradiated fuel" from the Rivne nuclear plant in western Ukraine for disposal at a spent fuel storage facility in Chornobyl.

The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency said it had reported this month on the transfer of spent fuel from Rivne to Chornobyl and taken full account of the material.

-Reuters

EU countries on Monday agreed to increase the maximum size of a fund used to finance military aid for Ukraine by 3.5 billion euros ($3.8 billion) to 12 billion.

The European Peace Facility (EPF), which EU countries contribute to according to the size of their economies, has already allocated some 4.6 billion euros in military aid for Ukraine. It is separate from the EU's budget, which is not allowed to finance military operations.

"Today's decision will again ensure that we have the funding to continue delivering concrete military support to our partners' armed forces," the bloc's top diplomat Josep Borrell, who had requested the increase, said in a statement.

"The facility has proven its worth. It has completely changed the way we support our partners on defence. It makes the EU and its partners stronger," he said.

Hungary on Monday said it would not lift a block on a 500 million euro tranche of the existing fund until Kyiv removes Hungarian bank OTP (OTPB.BU) from a list of companies it deems "international sponsors" of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Hungary has branded the bank's inclusion "scandalous".

Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, speaking in Luxembourg, said that Budapest was ready to change its mind if Ukraine dropped the blacklisting.

The EPF, established in 2021, was conceived for the EU to help developing countries buy military equipment. But the 27-member union quickly decided to use it also to get weapons to Ukraine after Russia's invasion in February last year.

The fund allows EU countries that supply weapons and ammunition to Ukraine and claim back a portion of the cost.

-Reuters

In an interview with Russian RT television, Lavrov said U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy had spoken to Russian representatives on Sunday and given "signals" that the United States was not involved in the mutiny and that Washington hoped that Russia's nuclear arsenal would be kept safe, TASS said.

Lavrov also quoted Tracy as saying the mutiny was Russia's internal affair.

Several Western leaders have said the incident shows that instability is growing in Russia as a result of President Vladimir Putin's decision to send his armed forces into Ukraine early last year.

Asked whether there was any evidence that neither Ukrainian nor Western intelligence services were involved in the mutiny, Lavrov replied:

"I work in a department that does not collect evidence about illegal actions, but we have such structures, and I assure you, they already understand this."

Doubts over Wagner's future have raised questions about whether it will continue its operations in African countries such as Mali and the Central African Republic, where its forces have played a big role in long-running internal conflicts.

Since the war in Ukraine undermined Russia's ties and trade with the West, the Kremlin has also been underlining its commitment to Africa.

Lavrov told RT that Mali and CAR both maintained official contacts with Moscow alongside their relations with Wagner, adding: "Several hundred servicemen are working in the CAR as instructors; this work, of course, will be continued".

A presidential advisor for CAR's president told Reuters on Monday that nothing had changed since the weekend events in Russia.

Fidele Gouandjika said Wagner was not officially established in the country, and that the military cooperation agreement they signed was with the Russian Federation, which deploys contingents of its choice.

"The first one (is) made of Russian instructors to train our security forces … the second contingent are soldiers that the West calls Wagner," he said.

"Russia sent us Wagner but we signed with Russia and so if they sent us private militias that's their choice. We keep working with the soldiers that Russia sent," he said.

Lavrov also said Ukrainian allegations that Russia plans to stage an attack involving a release of radiation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine were "nonsense", TASS reported.

-Reuters

In its operational update, the General Staff said the Russians also carried out 25 air strikes over the past day.

There had been heavy Russian artillery and mortar fire in the Kupyansk area of Kharkiv, where the Russians have been trying to break through for over a month, the Ukrainians said.

The General Staff insisted all Russian efforts to take territory had been foiled. Across the Donetsk frontlines, the fighting was characterized by exchanges of indirect fire, but with little movement.

However, the Ukrainians say they are on the front foot around Bakhmut.

“(Troops) hold the initiative, continue assault operations and push the enemy back. Over the last day, the Ukrainian forces advanced 600 to 1,000 meters on the southern and northern flanks around Bakhmut,” said Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for the Eastern Grouping of the Armed Forces. Nearly 200 Russian soldiers had been killed in the last day, and a variety of Russian equipment had been destroyed, according to Cherevatyi.

CNN cannot verify Ukrainian claims of battlefield gains, or casualties.

In the south, where Ukrainian forces have attempted to break through Russian lines, the General Staff said a Russian effort to regain lost positions in the area of Novodarivka had also failed.

Russian artillery continued to strike about 30 settlements along the frontlines in the Zaporizhzhia region, it said.

In Kherson, Nataliya Humenyuk, a spokesperson for Ukrainian forces in the south, said the Russians struggled to regain positions on the east bank of the river Dnipro, which was flooded by the recent damage to the dam at Nova Kakhovka.

“Their work is complicated by the spread of intestinal infections,” Humenyuk said.

-CNN

#daily update #ukraine #russia #war in ukraine #bakhmut #wagner group #EU #US #zaporizhzhia #zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant

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ukrainenews · 11 months

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Update June 7, 2023

(There are a lot of accusations flying around as to why the Kakhovka Dam ruptured. Ukraine says one thing, Russia says another. Propaganda is everywhere. I personally do not believe that Ukraine blew up their own dam, endangering the lives of thousands of people, ruining acres of farmland, killing countless animals, and disrupting electricity to thousands more. However, I can just report what the news is saying and do my best not to post something I can prove is fake news. Links here and here for charities in Ukraine.)

Under the cut:

Ukraine warned of the danger of floating mines unearthed by flooding and the spread of disease and hazardous chemicals on Wednesday as senior officials inspected damage caused by the collapse of the vast Kakhovka hydro-electric dam.

Ukrainian troops have advanced up to 1,100 metres near the eastern city of Bakhmut in the past 24 hours, Kyiv said on Wednesday, the first gains it has reported since Russia said Ukraine had started a counter-offensive.

Engineering and munitions experts point to a deliberate explosion as the most logical reason behind the Kakhovka dam explosion, the New York Times reported on June 7. A mass humanitarian and ecological disaster unfolded after the Kakhovka dam collapsed around 2:50 a.m. on June 6. According to the Ukrainian authorities, the dam was blown up by Russian forces to prevent a Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Britain has said it will increase funding to the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, by £750,000 to support nuclear safety work in Ukraine. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant gets its cooling water from the reservoir of the Kakhovka dam, which collapsed on Tuesday.

Fighting around Bakhmut “remains the epicenter of hostilities,” Ukraine’s deputy defense minister said Wednesday.

Visiting the city of Kherson on the Dnipro river that bisects the country, Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said that over 80 settlements had been affected in a disaster which Ukraine and Russia blame on each other.

Blaming the dam's collapse on Russia, Kubrakov said: "They did it in order to free up troops in this direction by flooding this bit of the front line."

Russia, whose troops seized the dam soon after they invaded in February last year, has said Ukraine sabotaged the dam to distract attention from a counteroffensive it said was "faltering".

"I can't even speak now, I can't collect myself," said Lyubov Buryi, 67, who was evacuated from Kherson to a hospital on Tuesday with her 40-year-old son Roman.

"I'm of course awfully angry at (the Russians), I can't even describe it … I don't know what awaits us, our house seems to be destroyed," she said.

Regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said the water had reached a depth of 5.34 metres (17.5 ft) in some places of Kherson, though he said the rise had slowed and could peak by the end of Wednesday.

In Kherson, a large city about 60 km (37 miles) downstream from the destroyed dam, residents have set up makeshift embarkation points for dinghies that police, rescue workers and volunteers are now using to get around.

Kherson faces the Russian-controlled eastern bank of the Dnipro, and some residents have come under fire from Russian artillery as they go about their rescue and recovery work. The thud of artillery is heard almost constantly in the distance.

"Water is disturbing mines that were laid earlier, causing them to explode," Kubrakov, dressed casually in a grey T-shirt, told reporters. As a result of the flooding, chemicals and infectious bacteria were getting into the water, he said.

He said Ukraine had allocated 120 million hryvnias ($3.25 million) allocated to secure the water supply in Mykolaiv, another southern city, and 1.5 billion hryvnias had been set aside to rebuild water mains systems ruined by the flood.

EVACUATION The chief doctor of a Kherson hospital, who asked not to be named because he did not want the hospital to risk retribution, said 136 people had been admitted for treatment because of the flooding. Many were elderly.

"These people had difficulties with their psychological state. These are usually older people. (Some of) these people have chronic illnesses which could get worse," the doctor said.

Ukrainian authorities have evacuated people from 24 flooded settlements and at least 20 settlements are flooded on territory occupied by Russian forces, Kubrakov said.

"We see that the occupation authorities are not evacuating people," he said, calling for the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to help evacuate flood victims in Russian-occupied regions.

Kherson, a city of 279,000 before Russia's full-scale invasion in February last year, was occupied by Russian forces for over eight months until November.

Kubrakov said the water level in the city had risen by 12-16 cm an hour on Tuesday but was now rising at one-two cm an hour.

"It's one of the most terrifying terrorist acts of this war," he said.

($1 = 36.9290 hryvnias)

-via Reuters

Moscow said this week Kyiv had launched a series of assaults in its partially occupied region of Donetsk, which it said it thwarted, and described them as the start of the planned Ukrainian counter-offensive.

Ukrainian officials have said little directly in response to the Russian assertions although a senior security official on Wednesday denied the broad counter-offensive had begun.

"We have made advances of from 200 to 1,100 metres (220-1,200 yards) on various sections (of the front line) in the Bakhmut direction over the past day," Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar wrote on Telegram messenger, without providing further details.

Ukrainian troops, she said, had been on the offensive in the area for several days and Russian troops were on a defensive footing, aiming to hold on to their positions.

"Our troops have switched from the defensive to the offensive in the direction of Bakhmut," Maliar said.

Russia said last month its forces had captured Bakhmut, site of the longest and bloodiest battle since its February 2022 invasion, though Kyiv said it retained a small presence in the ruined city and was advancing on the flanks.

The Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday Ukraine had mounted attacks near Bakhmut, but that they had been unsuccessful.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the situation on the battlefield.

Maliar said in separate, televised comments that Russia lacked forces in Bakhmut and was bringing in troops from other positions.

Kyiv hopes its counter-offensive will be a turning point in the war but has portrayed assaults under way as localised.

"When we start the counter-offensive, everyone will know about it, they will see it," Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, told Reuters.

-via Reuters

Engineering and munitions experts point to a deliberate explosion as the most logical reason behind the Kakhovka dam explosion, the New York Times reported on June 7.

A mass humanitarian and ecological disaster unfolded after the Kakhovka dam collapsed around 2:50 a.m. on June 6. According to the Ukrainian authorities, the dam was blown up by Russian forces to prevent a Ukrainian counter-offensive.

According to experts cited by the New York Times, hard evidence of a deliberate explosion was "very limited" given that the dam was located in an active warzone, but "an internal explosion was the likeliest explanation for the destruction of the dam, a massive structure of steel-reinforced concrete that was completed in 1956."

The breach would have required "hundreds of pounds of explosives" to cause the kind of destruction that occurred and "an external detonation by bomb or missile would exert only a fraction of its force against the dam," the experts added.

The dam had previously sustained damage during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces since the start of the full-scale invasion last year, but the plant was "built to withstand an atomic bomb," Ihor Syrota, the head of Ukraine's state-owned energy company Ukrhydroenergo, said.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba criticized international media on June 6 that entertained Russian narratives that Ukraine might somehow be responsible for the Kakhovka dam's destruction, saying that it "puts facts and propaganda on equal footing."

Over 1,300 people have been rescued or preemptively evacuated from flood zones in the past 24 hours, according to the Interior Ministry, and relief efforts are ongoing.

Meanwhile, the President's Office reported that at least 150 tons of oil had spilled into the Dnipro River following the destruction of the dam, with the risk of 300 additional tons leaking.

The Agriculture Ministry also predicted on June 7 that the disruption caused to the biodiversity in the region by flooding would have unprecedenced economic and environmental consequences for years to come.

-Kyiv Independent

Britain has said it will increase funding to the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, by £750,000 to support nuclear safety work in Ukraine.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant gets its cooling water from the reservoir of the Kakhovka dam, which collapsed on Tuesday.

Ukrainian and UN experts have said the dam’s destruction and the draining of the reservoir behind it does not pose an immediate safety threat to the plant further upstream, but warned that it will have long-term implications for its future.

IAEA head Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement on Tuesday that “our current assessment is that there is no immediate risk to the safety of the plant.” But there are long-term concerns, both over safety and the possibility of the plant becoming operational again in the coming years.

Reuters reports the UK’s permanent representative to the IAEA, Corinne Kitsell, as saying:

Russia’s barbaric attacks on Ukraine’s civil infrastructure and its illegal control of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant runs contrary to all international nuclear safety and security norms.

She added:

I commend the work of the IAEA’s staff in Ukraine and I am pleased that the UK’s additional funding will help to facilitate its vital work, particularly given the additional risk posed by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.

-The Guardian

Fighting around Bakhmut “remains the epicenter of hostilities,” Ukraine’s deputy defense minister said Wednesday.

Speaking on Telegram, Hanna Maliar said Ukrainian forces have made gains ranging from 200 meters (656 feet) in some areas to 1,100 meters (3,609 feet) in others, but did not say where exactly.

Maliar also noted that Wagner fighters had largely withdrawn, noting they “remain in some places in the rear” and the large majority of the fighting is now being conducted by regular units of the Russian Federation, including airborne units.

The head of the Wagner military group in Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin, accused Russia of sabotaging his withdrawal from Bakhmut last week, claiming exit routes were mined.

Some context: Bakhmut sits toward the northeast of the Donetsk region, about 13 miles from the Luhansk region, and had long been a target for Russian forces. Since last summer the city has been a stone’s throw from the front lines.

Last month, Russian forces said they had finally captured the embattled eastern city. It followed a months-long slog where Russian soldiers had to grind for every inch of territory.

-CNN

#daily update #ukraine #russia #war in ukraine #kakhovka dam #bakhmut #i don't usually let my emotions through on this blog #but the flooding pictures have me in tears

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