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Aug 31, 2023

Ukraine

The UK on Thursday said Russia was hit by five separate drone strikes overnight on 29 and 30 August Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile Pskov Airfield: Sky glows

The UK on Thursday said Russia was hit by five separate drone strikes overnight on 29 and 30 August

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Pskov Airfield: Sky glows orange during largest drone strike on Russian territory since war began

Russian president Vladimir Putin’s forces have been pushed back amid Ukraine’s counteroffensive, as deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar reported new “successes” in the south and east.

“There have been some successes, in particular in the direction of Novodanylivka-Novoprokopivka,” Ms Maliar said on the Telegram messaging app, referring to two southeastern villages in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Novoprokopivka lies further south of the strategic settlement of Robotyne, which Ukraine said on Monday it had liberated.

Ms Maliar also said Kyiv’s forces were pressing on with their offensive operations south of the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, which was captured by Russian troops in May.

The battlefield update comes on the same day the UK’s Ministry of Defence said Putin faced the largest attack on Russia since the start of the war, after it was hit by five separate drone strikes overnight on 29 and 30 August.

The MoD said explosions were recorded in Moscow, Bryansk, and Ryazan, as well as at Pskov airbase close to the Estonian border.

The government added that since many of these drones reached their targets, it “likely means Russian air defence is having difficulty detecting and destroying them”.

Two Russian soldiers have been jailed for refusing to return to the frontline in Ukraine, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

In an intelligence update posted on Twitter, the ministry said two Russian soldiers were sentenced to serve at least two years in a penal colony by a military court for refusing to obey orders to return to the front in Ukraine.

It comes after Russian independent media outlet Mediazona reported that Russia was convicting close to 100 soldiers a week for refusing to fight.

Martha McHardy has the full story:

Russia is reportedly convicting close to 100 soldiers a week for refusing to fight

Russian anti-aircraft units destroyed a Ukrainian drone on Thursday over Bryansk region in the south of the country, the Defence Ministry said on Telegram.

Bryansk region has been the target of several of Ukraine‘s recent attempts to launch drone strikes on Russian territory.

Ukraine‘s Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov thanked Ben Wallace on Thursday for his “energy and dedication”, after Rishi Sunak appointed ex-energy minister Grant Shapps the UK’s new defence secretary.

Mr Reznikov wrote on X/Twitter:“His authority has inspired other countries to join in assisting Ukraine.”

Mr Shapps vowed to continue to support Ukraine against Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “barbaric invasion” in a post on X, shortly after his appointment was announced.

Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko said demands by Poland and the Baltic states for the withdrawal of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group from Belarus were “groundless and stupid”, state news agency BELTA reported on Thursday.

BELTA quoted Lukashenko as saying that opposition to Wagner’s presence in Belarus was unjustified as long as foreign troops are stationed in Poland and the Baltics, which are all members of NATO.

Wagner, whose leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash in Russia last week, relocated some of its fighters to Belarus under a deal brokered by Lukashenko to end a brief mutiny by the mercenary army against the Russian defence establishment in June.

Poland and its neighbours see Wagner’s presence in Belarus as a security threat, and Warsaw in response has moved some of its own troops eastwards towards the Belarus border.

BELTA quoted Lukashenko as saying that Poland and the Baltics had no right to complain about Wagner in Belarus as long as they had “even one foreign serviceman” on their soil

“In the meantime, these are groundless and stupid demands,” he said.

Options for the mercenary group – in the wake of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s demise – include complete dissolution, nationalisation into the conventional Russian army or finding a new leader.

In any case, Russian president Vladimir Putin is set to hold the key to the group’s future.

Read more here:

Options for the mercenary group – in the wake of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s demise – include complete dissolution, nationalisation into the conventional Russian army or finding a new leader. Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to hold the key to the future

Grant Shapps will take the reins at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) against a backdrop of war in Europe and with his predecessor Ben Wallace warning the world will become more insecure and unstable.

Here’s everything you need to know about the new defence secretary:

Mr Shapps is moving to the role from a stint as energy secretary.

A British man has died while fighting Russian forces in Ukraine.

Sam Newey, 22, died while serving on the frontline in Ukraine. The 22-year-old was killed in action in Eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, according to his brother.

His brother paid tribute to him on social media, saying he was “broken” at the news of his death, but said he was “proud” of his younger brother.

Read more here:

Sam Newey was killed in action in Eastern Ukraine on Wednesday

Russia said on Thursday it intended to develop ties with North Korea, while not confirming a statement by the White House that Russian president Vladimir Putin had exchanged letters with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The White House said on Wednesday it was concerned that arms negotiations between Russia and North Korea were advancing actively, and said Putin and Kim had written to each other pledging to increase their cooperation.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not answer directly when asked by reporters if the letter exchange had taken place.

“Moscow and Pyongyang maintain good, mutually respectful relations. We intend to develop them further. Contacts are being made at various levels,” he said, calling North Korea “a very important neighbour”.

Washington has warned before that North Korea could provide more weapons to Russia for use against Ukraine.

Earlier this month the United States imposed sanctions on three entities it accused of being tied to arms deals between North Korea and Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia and North Korea ‘maintain good, mutually respectful relations’

Sanctions were slapped on two Indian firms over their alleged ties to a Russian state-owned diamond major, revealed a report that underscored the first instance of the country’s businesses coming under American penalties imposed after the Ukraine invasion.

Full story here:

Punitive sanctions were imposed on Indian businesses for links with world’s biggest diamond miner Alrosa

The co-founder and military commander of the Wagner was buried near Moscow on Thursday, after dying in an unexplained plane crash that also killed his boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Dmitry Utkin, 53, whose call-sign “Wagner” gave the private army its name, was buried in Mytishchi, on the outskirts of the capital, in a ceremony cordoned off by Russian military police, according to the popular online news channel Shot.

Prigozhin had been buried on Tuesday in an equally discreet ceremony in his hometown of St Petersburg that contrasted starkly with his loud and often foul-mouthed presence on social media.

Before helping to found Wagner as Prigozhin’s shadowy right-hand man, Utkin served as a special forces officer in the GRU military intelligence service, where he held the rank of lieutenant colonel.

He fought for Wagner to support Moscow’s military campaigns in Syria and Ukraine, and was photographed in 2016 at the Kremlin with president Vladimir Putin.

At the end of June, a source told Reuters that Utkin was the leader of an armed convoy of Wagner mutineers that advanced towards Moscow to back Prigozhin’s demand that the military leadership resign over its failures in what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

A portrait of Dmitry Utkin, a shadowy figure who managed Wagner’s operations

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