The Wagner Group would be ready to pull out of Ukraine’s Donbass region to move its forces to Africa after Russian military leaders decided to cut supplies of men and ammunition. The news was reported by Bloomberg, citing sources “familiar with the matter”. Yevgeny Prigozhin, Bloomberg writes, is suffering from a shortage of men and ammunition in Ukraine after being prevented from recruiting people from prisons, its main source of soldiers. In addition, the troops of the Wagner group have so far failed to capture their main objective, Bakhmut, and the militia is losing many men every day. The decision to withdraw from the war in Ukraine comes for these reasons in the face of growing disagreements with defense leaders in Moscow and likely with Putin himself. “It seems that Bloomberg knows better than we do what we are going to do. As long as our country needs us, we will stay and fight in Ukraine.” Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Telegram, denying what was written by the American agency that the private Russian company was in the process of expanding its armed forces from the withdraw from Ukraine to transfer them to Africa.
SLOVAKIA DELIVERS THE FIRST MIGs
The first four Mig-29 fighters donated to Ukraine by Slovakia flew out of Slovakian territory today. This was announced by the Slovakian Ministry of Defense. Slovakia intends to donate a total of 13 fighter jets of this type to Ukraine. “I would like to thank everyone involved for the fantastic professional work. Slovakia is on the right side and with this gesture we have inscribed ourselves as a country in the history of the modern world in big letters, which speaks of timely help, sincere solidarity and the greatness of the nation,” said Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad first Mig-29 fighter through Slovakia to Ukraine “is another step that indicates that NATO and EU countries on the Ukraine issue are continuing the path of escalating the conflict by trying to turn it into the To drag it out and fight to the last Ukrainian.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told TASS.
MEDVEDEV: ‘PUTIN’S ARREST WOULD BE EQUAL TO A DECLARATION OF WAR’
Arresting the Russian president abroad on behalf of the International Criminal Court (ICC) would be casus belliDeputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said while answering questions from journalists and social media users this morning, Tass reported: “Let’s imagine – of course this is a situation that will never happen, yes – but let’s imagine before us that it actually happens President of a nuclear power comes to Germany and is arrested. What would that be? A declaration of war on the Russian Federation! In that case, all our funds would fly to the Bundestag, the Chancellery, and so on.” Medvedev noted the words of German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann that Berlin must execute the judgment of the International Criminal Court and arrest the Russian head of state if he enters German territory : “He is aware that would that be a casus belli, a declaration of war? Or has he not done his homework?”, he concluded.
ANSA agency
Hungary would not arrest Vladimir Putin if he entered its territory. This was stated by Gergely Gulyás, head of the cabinet of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, quoted by the local media.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced that a Soyuz 2.1a launch vehicle was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome this morning and launch a Russian military satellite Kosmos-2567. This was announced by the agency Interfax. “The spacecraft entered target orbit on schedule and was brought under control by the Space Force’s ground facilities,” the Moscow ministry said. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow does not expect “transparency” from Western countries in investigating the blasts that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines connecting Russia to Germany through the waters of the Baltic Sea in September. “I do not expect any transparency in the investigation, nor any public disclosure of its results,” Lavrov said this morning The Russian ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, has returned to attack the West. “Western countries led by the United States have decided to bring humanity to the brink of nuclear Armageddon,” he said in response to comments from senior US officials that depleted uranium munitions had been in use for decades and did not pose a high risk . “Commenting on such nonsense is really difficult. The US authorities have hit a new low with their irresponsible statements,” said Antonov.ulyás, chief of cabinet of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, quoted by local media.
THE SITUATION ON SITE
Russian troops spotted and used APC-82 weapons to kill a crew of Ukrainian drone operators sheltering in a family home near Donetsk, Ivan Bigma, spokesman for Battlegroup South, told TASS. In the course of joint offensive operations in the settlement of Maryinka near Donetsk, a place was discovered where the Ukrainian military shot down unmanned aerial vehicles and operators were destroyed with standard APC armament,” he added.
Ukraine, apartment building in Zaporizhzhia bombed: one dead and over 30 injured
The Russian offensive at Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine is “slowing down” as the pace of operations in nearby Avdiivka picks up, according to the Institute for the Study of War in its daily update on the conflict. The Guardian reports on it. Russian operations around Bakhmut “appear to be slowing amid Western reports that Russian forces may be attempting to launch offensives in other directions,” writes the US research center. Russian forces, he continues, are accelerating offensive operations around Avdiivka – which is some 55 kilometers southwest of Bakhmut – with the aim of encircling the city. And experts at the study center do not rule out that the Russians are doing this at the expense of their operations in Bakhmut and Vugledar (about 70 kilometers southwest of Avdiivka), where the offensive appears to have stalled. Even the British Ministry of Defense spoke in its intelligence report yesterday of a “realistic possibility” that the Russian attack on Bakhmut will lose the limited momentum it has gained, partly because some units have been moved to other sectors.