The very opaque Wagner group is said to be linked to the Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigoyine, who is himself considered close to President Vladimir Putin. The presence of their fighters has been confirmed in Syria, Libya, Mali and other African countries in recent years.
Ukrainian authorities also claimed that pro-Kyiv saboteurs managed to blow up a railway bridge near the Russian army-held town of Melitopol (Zaropijya region, south) in order to disrupt the logistics of troops from Moscow.
“One less railway bridge southwest of Melitopol means a total lack of military trains from Crimea,” a peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014 and vital to supplying the Russian army, Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov announced by telegram.
Three Russian vacationers killed in Crimea
In Sevastopol, Crimea.
Olga MALTSEVA/AFP
Ukraine has attacked several bridges in recent weeks, mainly in the occupied Kherson region, where Kyiv says it is conducting a counteroffensive that has allowed it to recapture dozens of villages and is now threatening Russian troops who have crossed the Dnieper.
[ 🇷🇺 RUSSIE | 🇺🇦 UKRAINE ]
🔸 “We advise our valued Russian guests not to visit Ukrainian Crimea as no sunscreen can protect them from the dangerous effects of smoking in unauthorized areas. – Ukrainian Ministry of Defense pic.twitter.com/b46aSZqCqG
— (Small) think tank (@L_ThinkTank) August 12, 2022
In the Odessa region on the Black Sea, three summer guests were killed and two others injured while bathing on a beach in Zatoka, a popular bathing resort, by the detonation of an “unknown explosive device” on Monday, according to Telegram a spokesman for regional authorities Serguiï Bratchouk.
In the morning, Russian bombing raids on Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, left at least one dead and six injured, a senior local police official, Serguiï Bolvinov, said on Facebook.