Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that Kremlin factions were destroying the state by trying to sow discord between him and Chechen fighters.
Prigozhin said a dispute between him and Chechen forces, who are also fighting alongside the Russian army in Ukraine, had been resolved.
But the Wagner chief blamed the discord on unidentified Kremlin factions – which he calls “Kremlin towers”.
Their scheming had got so out of hand that Putin had been forced to scold them at a security council meeting, he said.
Founder of the Wagner private mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin. Photograph: Yulia Morozova/Reuters
In a message posted by his press service, Prigozhin said:
Pandora’s Box is already open – we are not the ones who opened it.
Some Kremlin tower decided to play dangerous games.
Dangerous games have become commonplace in the Kremlin towers ... they are simply destroying the Russian state.
While he did not identify the Kremlin faction he said that if it continued its attempts to sow discord, it would have “hell to pay”.
The Kremlin did not comment on his remarks.
Ukraineis ready to launch its long-awaited counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview published on Saturday. He said: “We strongly believe that we will succeed. I don’t know how long it will take. To be honest, it can go a variety of ways, completely different. But we are going to do it, and we are ready.”
Ukraine’s plans for a counteroffensive against Russian occupation remain on track, its deputy defence minister Volodymyr V Havrylov told Reuters on Saturday, despite an “unprecedented” wave of missile and drone attacks across the country in recent weeks.
Gen David Petraeus old BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Ukraine’s counteroffensive is “very impressive” and can succeed, adding that the Ukrainians are “determined to liberate their country”. Petraeus, who was director of the CIA and led international forces in Iraq and Afghanistan before that, has been in Kyiv recently, meeting President Zelenskiy and others.
Indonesia’s defence minister Prabowo Subianto has proposed a peace plan for the war in Ukraine, calling for a demilitarised zone and a United Nations referendum in what he called disputed territory. However, the proposed plan was dismissed by Ukraine.
Kremlin has banned Western journalists from Russia’s ‘Davos’. The Kremlin said on Saturday that journalists from “unfriendly countries” would not be allowed into the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, which President Vladimir Putin has used to showcase the Russian economy to global investors.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Friday the US was working with Ukraine and other allies to build consensus around the core elements of a “just and lasting peace” to end the war with Russia.
Ukraine would be ready to continue exporting grain across the Black Sea as part of a “plan B” without Russian backing if Moscow pulled the plug on the current grain export deal and it collapsed, Ukraine’s farm minister has said.
Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned Russian opposition leader, has released excerpts of his correspondence with prison administrators, detailing his sarcastic demands for things like a bottle of moonshine, a balalaika and even a kangaroo. His requests were denied.
A Russian-installed official in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region said Ukrainian forces had shelled the Russian-controlled port city of Berdiansk, on the Sea of Azov. Footage showed a large cloud of grey smoke rising from near the port area.
Three people were killed and four injured, including a three-year-old girl, by fire from Ukrainian armed forces, according to Denis Pushilin, the Russian-imposed leader of the occupied Donetsk region.
Britain supports Ukraine joining Nato, the defence minister, Ben Wallace, has saidon the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore, saying the path is open to them. However, political realities may slow the process as it is not possible to add members in the middle of a war. Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he understood Ukraine would not join Nato while at war with Russia.
Ukrainian-backed Russian rebel groups have said they are still fighting inside Russia’s Belgorod region, despite Moscow’s claims on Thursday to have repelled the incursion. The Freedom of Russia Legion posted videos on social media of combat apparently in the Belgorod village of Novaya Tavolzhanka, between the Ukrainian-Russian border and the town of Shebekino, the legion’s stated goal.
The top US military officer has said training for Ukrainian forces on advanced US Abrams tanks has started, but those weapons crucial over the long term in trying to expel Russia from occupied territory will not be ready in time for Kyiv’s imminent counteroffensive.
6 Ukrainian servicemen and Russian volunteers wait to donate blood in a special vehicle for donors in downtown Kyiv during an action 'Blood for the Ukrainian Armed Forces' amid the Russian invasion. Photograph: Stepan Franko/EPA
Ukraine’s ministry of defence has tweeted this.
Ukrainian football player Mykola Zhydkov died defending his homeland.Mykola played for the Polish football club "Wegrzcanka", but returned to Ukraine in the autumn of 2022 and joined the ranks of the defense forces.May the memory of this Hero be eternal.
A review of 4,800 shelters in Ukraine found approximately 20% were “not suitable for use” and 252 were closed, according to interior minister, Ihor Klymenko.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy ordered a complete audit after a woman was allegedly killed while trying to enter a closed shelter on Thursday.
Four people have been detained in a criminal investigation into the death, Kyiv regional prosecutor’s office said.
A security guard who had failed to unlock the doors, remained under arrest, while three others, including a local official, had been put under house arrest, Sky News reported.
Residents evacuated from parts of the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, including those from the town of Shebekino, are seen settled in a temporary shelter set up at the Belgorod arena.
Photograph: Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images
Volunteers give out food to residents at a school on the outskirts of Kharkiv oblast.
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Kyiv residents donate blood for Ukrainian soldiers injured during the violent clashes in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Summary
Ukraineis ready to launch its long-awaited counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview published on Saturday. He said: “We strongly believe that we will succeed. I don’t know how long it will take. To be honest, it can go a variety of ways, completely different. But we are going to do it, and we are ready.”
Ukraine’s plans for a counteroffensive against Russian occupation remain on track, its deputy defence minister, Volodymyr V Havrylov, told Reuters on Saturday, despite an “unprecedented” wave of missile and drone attacks across the country in recent weeks.
Gen David Petraeus told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Ukraine’s counteroffensive is “very impressive” and can succeed”, adding that the Ukrainians are “determined to liberate their country”. Petraeus, who was director of the CIA, and led international forces in Iraq and Afghanistan before that, has been in Kyiv recently, meeting President Zelenskiy and others.
Indonesia’s defence minister, Prabowo Subianto, has proposed a peace plan for the war in Ukraine, calling for a demilitarised zone and a United Nations referendum in what he called disputed territory. However, the proposed plan was dismissed by Ukraine.
The Kremlin has banned western journalists from Russia’s ‘Davos’. The Kremlin said on Saturday that journalists from “unfriendly countries” would not be allowed into the St Petersburg international economic forum, which President Vladimir Putin has used to showcase the Russian economy to global investors.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Friday the US was working with Ukraine and other allies to build consensus around the core elements of a “just and lasting peace” to end the war with Russia.
Ukraine would be ready to continue exporting grain across the Black Sea as part of a plan B without Russian backing if Moscow pulled the plug on the current grain export deal and it collapsed, Ukraine’s farm minister has said.
Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned Russian opposition leader, has released excerpts of his correspondence with prison administrators, detailing his sarcastic demands for things like a bottle of moonshine, a balalaika and even a kangaroo. His requests were denied.
A Russian-installed official in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region said Ukrainian forces had shelled the Russian-controlled port city of Berdiansk, on the Sea of Azov. Footage showed a large cloud of grey smoke rising from near the port area.
Three people were killed and four injured, including a three-year-old girl, by fire from Ukrainian armed forces, according to Denis Pushilin, the Russian-imposed leader of the occupied Donetsk region.
Britain supports Ukraine joining Nato, the defence minister, Ben Wallace, has saidon the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore, saying the path is open to them. However, political realities may slow the process as it is not possible to add members in the middle of a war. Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he understood Ukraine would not join Nato while at war with Russia.
Ukrainian-backed Russian rebel groups have said they are still fighting inside Russia’s Belgorod region, despite Moscow’s claims on Thursday to have repelled the incursion. The Freedom of Russia Legion posted videos on social media of combat apparently in the Belgorod village of Novaya Tavolzhanka, between the Ukrainian-Russian border and the town of Shebekino, the legion’s stated goal.
The top US military officer has said training for Ukrainian forces on advanced US Abrams tanks has started, but those weapons crucial over the long term in trying to expel Russia from occupied territory will not be ready in time for Kyiv’s imminent counteroffensive.
Concerns around civilian safety have spiked in Ukraine, as officials announced that an inspection had found nearly a quarter of the country’s air raid shelters locked or unusable.
The Ukrainian interior ministry said through its press service that of the “over 4,800” shelters it inspected, 252 were locked, and a further 893 “unfit for use.”
On Saturday, Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said that city authorities have received “more than 1,000” complaints regarding locked, dilapidated or insufficient air raid shelters within a day of launching an online feedback service.
In a Telegram update, Klitschko reported that “almost half” of the complaints concerned facilities being locked and about a quarter had to do with them being in poor condition. About 250 Kyiv residents wrote in to complain about a lack of nearby shelters.
The interior ministry said that more than 5,300 volunteers would continue to inspect shelters across Ukraine.
Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, takes cover inside a shelter with residents during an air raid alert during a Russian attack on Kyiv on 1 June.
Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
France can hardly be a “moderator” in the Ukrainian conflict due to its active participation in it, Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said.
Peskov told Russian state television that, at the same time, President Vladimir Putin is open to any contacts to achieve Russia’s goals.
Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that Kremlin factions were destroying the state by trying to sow discord between him and Chechen fighters.
Prigozhin said a dispute between him and Chechen forces, who are also fighting alongside the Russian army in Ukraine, had been resolved.
But the Wagner chief blamed the discord on unidentified Kremlin factions – which he calls “Kremlin towers”.
Their scheming had got so out of hand that Putin had been forced to scold them at a security council meeting, he said.
Founder of the Wagner private mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Photograph: Yulia Morozova/Reuters
In a message posted by his press service, Prigozhin said:
Pandora’s Box is already open – we are not the ones who opened it.
Some Kremlin tower decided to play dangerous games.
Dangerous games have become commonplace in the Kremlin towers ... they are simply destroying the Russian state.
While he did not identify the Kremlin faction he said that if it continued its attempts to sow discord, it would have “hell to pay”.
The Kremlin did not comment on his remarks.
More on the report (see 13.56 post) that two people were killed and two injured by Ukrainian artillery fire on Russia’s Belgorod region on Saturday.
Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram:
Since this morning, settlements in the Shebekino urban district have been under fire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
On Friday, Gladkov said that more than 2,500 people were being evacuated from the district, given that it was not safe to be there.
Russian officials have in recent days reported intensified attacks from northern Ukraine.
Topics
Page 2
Kyrgyzstan’s president said on Saturday that the ex-Soviet republic was ready to work with the EU.
President Sadyr Japarov, whose country is an ally of Moscow, said:
Kyrgyzstan is ready to work hand in hand with the European Union to resolve shared problems, encourage dialogue and find lasting solutions.
The EU hopes to tighten ties with a region Russia sees as its sphere of influence.
He was speaking during a meeting with EU Council president, Charles Michel.
Michel on Friday took part in a summit attended by the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The high-profile gathering in the resort of Cholpon-Ata on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul was the second summit between the former Soviet republics of Central Asia and the EU, the top donor to the region and its main investment partner.
“We offer a sincere partnership” to the region’s five former Soviet republics, Michel told Agence France-Presse in an interview Friday.
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel (left), shakes hands with the president of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov, during his visit to Kyrgyzstan. Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock
Two people were killed and two injured by Ukrainian artillery fire on Russia’s Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said, Reuters reports.
The Kremlin said on Saturday that journalists from ‘unfriendly countries’ would not get accreditation for the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Tass reported.
Reuters was told by the organisers of the forum on Friday that accreditation to the forum had been cancelled after receiving an earlier confirmation of accreditation on Thursday.
The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said Saturday that he was ready to send fighters to the Russian Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine and has come under intense shelling.
AFP reports that Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Telegram:
If the defence ministry, in the near future, does not stop what is happening in the Belgorod region … then of course we will come to defend Russian land.
The civilian population is dying in Belgorod.
He added he would not wait for an “invitation” to deploy his fighters there.
Belgorod governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said that the region had been hit by 500 attacks on Friday - including artillery and rocket fire.
He said five people had died in the shelling. The town of Shebekino has been most affected, with hundreds of its residents fleeing.
Dan Sabbagh
Ukraine’s president has declared his country’s military is ready to launch a long-awaited counteroffensive and hinted at concern about the possibility of Donald Trump retaking the White House.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, giving an interview to the Wall Street Journal, suggested that a significant attack could come soon and said he hoped a change in the US presidency would not impact military aid to Kyiv.
“We strongly believe that we will succeed,” Zelenskiy told the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, although he acknowledged he did not know how long the counteroffensive would take or how well it would go.
A peace plan to end the war in Ukraine proposed by Indonesian defence minister, Prabowo Subianto, (see 8.30am post) has been dismissed by Ukraine.
Subianto called on defence and military officials from around the world, gathered at the Shangri-La Dialogue defence meeting in Singapore, to issue a declaration calling for a cessation in hostilities.
However, Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, said Russia had committed the act of aggression, occupying Ukrainian territories, and any proposals for a ceasefire would allow it to regroup and reinforce, Reuters reports.
Nikolenko said:
There are no disputed territories between Ukraine and the Russian Federation to hold referendums there,” he said.
In the occupied territories, the Russian army commits war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Russia is now trying in every possible way to disrupt the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Here are some images coming to us over the wires.
Volunteers hand out food to residents at a school on the outskirts of Kharkiv oblast, on 2 June. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Ukraine’s deputy minister of defence, Volodymyr Havrylov, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Singapore. Photograph: Caroline Chia/Reuters
President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets Estonian president, Alar Karis, Kyiv, on 2 June. Photograph: APAImages/Shutterstock
As the world celebrated international children’s day this week, Ukrainians in Sydney and their supporters took part in the worldwide campaign dedicated to the issue of killing, kidnapping and deportation of Ukrainian children by Russia. Protesters bought toys to hold during the rally. Photograph: Richard Milnes/Shutterstock
Russia will come back to full compliance with the New Start treaty if Washington abandons its “hostile stance” towards Moscow, Russian news agencies reported, citing deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov.
The United States said earlier this week that it would stop providing Russia with some notifications required under the arms control treaty, including updates on its missile and launcher locations, to retaliate for Moscow’s “ongoing violations” of the accord, Reuters reports.
According to Ryabkov, the move did not come as a surprise to Moscow, and Russia’s decision to suspend the New Start treaty stands despite any countermeasures.
The Tass news agency quoted him as saying:
Regardless of any measures or countermeasures from the US side, our decision to suspend the Start treaty is unshakable.
And our own condition for returning to a fully operational treaty is for the US to abandon its fundamentally hostile stance toward Russia.
Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov. Photograph: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
Petraeus also said that Ukrainians are determined “to liberate” all of its territory:
Well, there are quite categorical that winning for them is liberating all their territory.
There’s no hedging on that. There are no discussions behind closed doors that oh look, we could give this up or give that up. They are determined to liberate their country. And again, to win the war and then win the peace.
And of course, there will need to be some kind of, I think, some kind of negotiated resolution. We certainly don’t ever want to see another frozen conflict with new frontlines. And there’s a lot of pressure on Russia.
Petraeus also said Putin could “hang on” in power once the war with Ukraine is over.
He has still total control. Certainly, there’s some criticism of the ministry of defence, defence minister Shoigu, the chief of the general staff Gen Gerasimov and so forth, that’s allowable. No one criticises Putin or not generally, there has been some somewhat indirect by Prigozhin, by a few others.
I think he probably could hang on to that power. And what we have to watch for are any indicators that the inconceivable, the toppling of Putin, could all of a sudden, seem very possible.
