Russia will be “stronger” after the abortive rebellion of the Wagner group, which shook Russian power last week, assured Friday its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov.
“Russia has always emerged more solid, stronger, from all difficulties (…) This will still be the case this time. We already feel that this process has begun,” Sergei Lavrov told a press conference. in Moscow.
Russians suspected of being part of a spy ring
Russia “strongly protested” on Friday against the arrest of 14 Russian citizens in Poland accused of having participated in a “spy network” including a hockey player, a case for which Moscow demanded “explanations”.
“We express our strong protest towards Warsaw. We demand that an immediate and full explanation be provided to Russia,” said Russian diplomatic spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, quoted by the TASS and Ria Novosti news agencies.
Russia is seen as a threat by Prague
The head of the Czech Foreign Ministry’s security department said Thursday (June 29th) that Russia posed “a direct military threat” to the Czech Republic and its Eastern European NATO allies, so that the invasion of Ukraine continues. Senior official Martin Povejsil told the press that it was “impossible to rule out a direct military threat (from Russia) in the foreseeable future”.
He underlined the need to increase awareness of these threats among the population. According to the document adopted on Wednesday, the Republic must prepare “for the possibility that it becomes a party to an armed conflict”. The Czech Republic, population 10.8 million, has provided Ukraine with military and humanitarian aid. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said Prague had supplied Ukraine with 24 tanks, 76 armored vehicles and 645 anti-tank missiles between January and May 2023. The Czech Republic has taken in half a million Ukrainian refugees.
Two generals and dozens of Ukrainian soldiers killed
Russia claimed to have killed two Ukrainian generals in a recent strike on Kramatorsk (east), 50 kilometers from the front, two days after a bloody bombardment on a restaurant in this city which left 12 dead and 65 injured, according to the Ukrainian authorities . “As a result of a high-precision strike two generals, up to 50 officers of the Ukrainian forces and up to 20 foreign mercenaries and military instructors who participated in a meeting were eliminated,” the Russian Defense Ministry said. in a press release.
Ukraine, for its part, said Thursday that it was making slow progress in the East, after nearly a month of counter-offensive. “We are advancing near Bakhmout and it is continuing,” Ukrainian ground forces commander Oleksandre Syrsky said on Telegram. Ukraine, equipped by the West, has claimed the resumption of a dozen localities since the start of its counter-offensive in early June, but it faces Russian defenses prepared for months, with trenches and minefields.
Putin tries to restore order
While the fighting continues in Russia, the authorities are trying to show a return to normal, a few days after the aborted rebellion of the paramilitary group Wagner which shook the power of Vladimir Putin. On Wednesday evening, the Russian president thus appeared going to meet dozens of people during a trip to the Russian Caucasus (south), agreeing to have his picture taken and handing out handshakes. The Kremlin saw it as “an incredible show of support” from the Russians, without the AFP being able to verify the degree of spontaneity of this scene, while Vladimir Putin only very rarely appears in popular gatherings.
“A weakened Putin represents a greater danger,” warned the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell in Brussels on his arrival for a European summit on Thursday, underlining the risk of “instability” for Russia after the mutiny of the Wagner group. Vladimir Putin is “carrying out an internal cleansing” with the arrest of generals and is looking for “who is behind this attempt at armed rebellion”, he underlined.
Vatican meets Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Moscow
The pope’s envoy for peace in Ukraine, Matteo Zuppi, met Thursday in Moscow with the Russian commissioner for children, targeted by an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “illegal deportation” of Ukrainian minors , a war crime. Maria Lvova-Belova indicated “humanitarian issues related to military operations and the protection of children’s rights”. kyiv estimates that at least 20,000 minors were illegally taken to Russia.
Cardinal Zuppi also spoke with Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill, a rare meeting between clergy leaders of both faiths. “At a time when relations between Russia and the West are experiencing very serious problems, it is very important that all forces wishing to preserve peace and justice unite”, declared Patriarch Kirill, referring to a “real threat of a major global armed conflict”. He called, quoted in a press release, on their two Churches to make “joint efforts” to “prevent the negative development” of the situation.
Patriarch Kirill, an ally of Vladimir Putin who has in the past justified the Russian offensive, also informed the cardinal of the “persecutions suffered” by the Orthodox in Ukraine, where the Church close to Moscow is under pressure from the authorities. Matteo Zuppi’s visit to Ukraine in early June did not lead to a breakthrough in the resolution of the conflict with Russia, but President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that “the Holy See can make an effective contribution” to the release of prisoners from Ukrainian war and the return of children “deported” according to Kiev to Russia.
Greta Thunberg denounces ecocide in Ukraine
Visiting Kyiv, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg criticized what she said was an international lack of response to “ecocide” in Ukraine after severe flooding caused by the destruction of a dam. “I don’t think the global reaction to this ecocide is enough,” the activist told a news conference. “Ecocide and the destruction of the environment is a form of warfare. The Ukrainians know this only too well, as does Russia. That is why they are deliberately attacking the environment,” he said. – she continued.
The June 6 destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam on the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine poured downpours on towns and villages downstream, including the regional capital of Kherson. The destruction of the dam has also decimated local flora and fauna, with authorities fearing the damage will last for decades. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had deplored the lack of humanitarian aid in early June, believing that the UN and international NGOs had not risen to the occasion.
Strike against a Wagner base in Libya
Drone strikes of unknown origin targeted, on the night of Thursday June 29 to Friday June 30, an air base in eastern Libya where mercenaries from the Russian paramilitary group Wagner were located, without causing any casualties. The military source, who requested anonymity, told AFP that drones “of unknown origin hit al-Kharrouba air base, located 150 kilometers southeast of Benghazi (east), where elements of the Wagner group would be”.
From April 2019 to June 2020, Khalifa Haftar, the strongman of eastern Libya, used Chadian, Sudanese, Nigerian and Syrian fighters, but above all Wagner mercenaries, in his failed attempt to seize the capital Tripoli. Since then, hundreds of Wagner members have remained active in the east, the area of the oil terminals, and in southern Libya after the departure of part of their personnel to Mali or to the Ukraine to fight in the alongside the Russian army.
Launch of the Spanish EU Presidency in Kyiv
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will travel to Kyiv on Saturday to reiterate EU support for Ukraine on the first day of his country’s rotating EU Council Presidency from July 1. The announcement of this visit was made Thursday by Volodymyr Zelensky during an exchange by videoconference with the 27. “The head of government wanted the first act of the Spanish presidency to be to go to Kiev to make visible the unfailing support of the European Union to Ukraine in all areas: military, humanitarian and economic”, confirmed shortly after the services of Pedro Sanchez. Ukraine has the status of an EU candidate and still hopes to obtain the opening of accession negotiations by the end of 2023.
“We must ensure that Ukraine is able to defend itself,” insisted Josep Borrell, the head of European diplomacy. “The European Peace Facility should continue to be funded and maybe it should become a Ukrainian defense fund,” he suggested. “It is important that we double support for Ukraine, for military capability and financial aid,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.