Ukraine-Russia struggle stay: Kyiv forces ‘break through Putin’s strongest line of defence’

Ukrainian forces consider they’ve damaged via essentially the most troublesome line of Russian defences within the south and can now be capable of advance extra rapidly, a commander preventing within the south has mentioned.

Ukrainian forces mentioned on Wednesday that they had raised the nationwide flag within the settlement of Robotyne within the southern Zaporizhzhia area, about 10 km (six miles) south of the frontline city of Orikhiv.

“We don’t stop here,” mentioned a commander who led among the troops into Robotyne and who makes use of the callsign “Skala,” eponymous with the battalion which he leads.

“Next we have (the town of) Berdiansk, and then more. I made it clear to my fighters at once: our goal is not Robotyne, our goal is (the Sea of) Azov.”

Robotyne is about 100 km from Berdiansk, a port on the shores of the Sea of Azov, and 85 km from the strategic metropolis of Melitopol. Both are occupied by Russian forces following Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February final yr.

“We have passed the main roads that were mined. We are coming to those lines where we can go (forward). I’m sure we’ll go faster from here,” Skala mentioned.

He mentioned two homes have been nonetheless below Russian management in Robotyne: “We’re fighting for them, and then we’ll have full control (of Robotyne).”

A 40-second clip of an previous interview wherein Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin mentioned he would somewhat be killed than misinform his nation, and talked a few aircraft disintegrating within the sky, unleashed a flood of on-line theorizing on Sunday about his presumed demise.

Russia‘s aviation authority said the Wagner group chief was on a private jet that crashed northwest of Moscow with no survivors on Wednesday, exactly two months after he led a failed mutiny against army chiefs. The Kremlin said Western suggestions he had been killed on its orders were an “absolute lie.”

In the clip, taken from an interview originally published on April 29 with Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov, Prigozhin said Russia was on the brink of disaster because the defence establishment was gradually kicking out truth-tellers who refused to suck up to upper management.

“Today we have reached the boiling point,” he said in the clip published on Grey Zone, Wagner’s Telegram channel. “Why am I speaking so honestly? Because I don’t have the right, before those people who will live on in this country. They are now being lied to. Better kill me.”

He added, “But I will not lie, I must say honestly that Russia is on the brink of disaster. And if these cogs are not adjusted today, then the plane will fall apart in the air.”

The strategies are many and diversified: poisoning, taking pictures, aircraft crashes and, the only of all of them, the mysterious falling out of a window. John Kampfner on how Putin reworked state assassinations of his foes and political opponents onto an industrial scale:

‘‘The reason why it all happened is one man’s hatred and concern – one man hiding in a bunker. I mortally offended him by surviving an try at my life he ordered. And then I dedicated an much more critical offence: I didn’t go into hiding. And that’s driving this thieving little man in his bunker out of his thoughts.’’

The former prime minister has described the downing of the Wagner chief’s aircraft as “violent liquidation” and claimed that Putin was “being transformed before our eyes into an Asiatic despot”.

“I cannot think of another example of such ostentatious and uninhibited savagery by a world leader – not in our lifetimes,” he mentioned.

Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has mentioned that he warned the Wagner mercenary chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to “watch out” for threats to his life earlier than the aircraft crash wherein he’s believed to have died.

Mr Lukashenko helped dealer a deal between Prigozhin and the Kremlin that ended an tried mutiny by Wagner forces in opposition to Moscow in June – an rebellion that marked essentially the most important problem to Vladimir Putin’s authority in additional than twenty years in energy.

Two months to the day after that revolt was halted, an plane believed to be carrying Prigozhin and a lot of different members of Wagner’s senior management crashed on Wednesday.

Mr Putin had known as the Wagner mutiny treason, and had initially vowed to crush it. Quite a lot of world leaders have instructed that he wouldn’t let the embarrassment of that incident stand.

The Ukrainian navy destroyed 4 cruise missiles over northern and central Ukraine throughout an in a single day Russian air strike, Kyiv’s air pressure reported early right now.

It mentioned Ukrainian forces had detected as much as eight airborne targets however that there have been no rapid studies of strikes, including that the remainder of the targets have been “probably false”.

The air pressure additionally mentioned the assault concerned 5 Russian strategic bombers.

A new drone attack on Moscow forced all three major airports serving the Russian capital to temporarily close on Saturday morning, Russian state media reported, in the latest of near-daily drone strikes on the city and surrounding region.

Russia’s defence ministry and Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin claimed a drone was shot down over the Moscow area’s Istra district, some 50 kilometres west of Red Square. Mr Sobyanin mentioned there have been no rapid studies of any casualties or injury.

According to Russia’s state Tass company, the Sheremetevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports all suspended flights for over an hour early on Saturday.

Russian Telegram channels posted movies, a few of them apparently from home safety cameras, of what they claimed was Russian air defence downing the drone. One video exhibits a automotive parked outdoors what seems to be suburban home, its alarm starting to blare seconds after two loud blasts sound within the distance.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces shot down two drones in a single day in two areas bordering Ukraine.

One drone was shot down over the Bryansk area in Russia’s west and one other within the Kursk area, simply south of it, the defence ministry mentioned on the Telegram messaging channel.

There was no additional details about doable injury or casualties.

The warfare resumed between Ukraine and Russia alongside the dramatic possible demise of Russian mercenary group Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin earlier this week.

Ukraine claims {that a} Russian helicopter pilot defected to Ukraine after reportedly being “lured” throughout a six-month intelligence operation, my colleague Matt Drake studies.

Ukraine’s GUR navy intelligence company mentioned an Mi-8 helicopter landed at a Ukrainian airfield with the pilot and his unsuspecting crew members, with out specifying when.

It comes after a Russian navy blogger claimed in recent weeks {that a} helicopter crossed the border with three individuals on board after it had misplaced its approach, however Ukraine now claims this was a deliberate transfer.

“This was a GUR operation,” spokesperson Andriy Yusov mentioned on Wednesday. “The aircraft moved according to the plan. You will need to wait a bit, work is being conducted, including with the crew. Everything is fine, there will be news.”

Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda cited unnamed intelligence sources saying the company labored for months to persuade the pilot to cooperate and fly the plane to Ukraine. The report mentioned the helicopter landed in japanese Ukraine with the pilot. Two different crew members who have been unaware of the plan have been subsequently “liquidated”.