This Sunday, February 12, the leader of the Wagner militia announced that he had taken control of a locality in the Bakhmout region, which Moscow has been seeking to conquer for months. Information for the time being difficult to verify according to the Reuters news agency.
The former French biathlon star Martin Fourcade, IOC member and president of the Paris-2024 Athletes’ Commission, also said he was in favor of the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to competitions, in an interview broadcast on Saturday. Ukraine, through its president Volodymyr Zelensky, said it was formally opposed to the return of Russian athletes to all competitions, even under a neutral banner, while Russia considers the sidelining “unacceptable” of its athletes.
Wagner claims the capture of a locality of Bakhmout
Yevgueni Prigojine, founder of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, claimed on Sunday that his men had taken control of the village of Krasna Hora, located just north of Bakhmout, in eastern Ukraine. “Today, Wagner’s assault units took the locality of Krasna Hora,” said Yevgueni Prigozhin, quoted by his press service. For the time being the information is not verified, indicates the British press agency Reuters.
For months, the private militia in the hands of the Russian businessman has been trying to prove its superiority over the Russian army. Until claiming victories sometimes a little too quickly. It has been six months since the Russian paramilitary group has been attempting incursions into the east of the country, mainly in Bakhmout and Soledar, where the Ukrainian forces are repelling, wave after wave, their assaults.
Zelensky fires senior military official
National Guard deputy commander Ruslan Dzyuba was removed from his post on Saturday evening by Ukraine’s president, who offered no justification but said in his overnight address that his campaign to clean up the government was continuing.
“The state will continue to modernize institutions, their processes and procedures, said the Ukrainian President. Clarity in the work of state structures must be guaranteed not only by popular authorities, but also by respect for transparency and the responsibility.” Since the beginning of the year, several senior officials have resigned or been dismissed following revelations concerning potential acts of corruption. At the end of January, the First Deputy Minister of Development of Communities and Territories, Vasyl Lozynkiï, was arrested by the Ukrainian National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) on suspicion of embezzlement in connection with purchase contracts of electrical equipment and generators at inflated prices.
Martin Fourcade in favor of the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes
“As a representative of athletes and as an athlete, I think we should think about a return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to sports competitions,” said the most successful Frenchman in the history of the Winter Olympics. in his first public statement on the subject, during an interview in English for the NRK channel. “I really believe in the values of sport, and I really don’t think anyone should be banned from competition because of their passport or their nationality,” he said.
The five-time Olympic champion stressed that he was speaking in a personal capacity and that it was a question of principle – an athlete should not be banned “because his president is behaving like a madman” -, not necessarily linked to the Paris Olympics. “They should be able to compete. When? That’s another question. And I’m not the one who will decide or who has to say that they should compete in Paris,” he stressed.
Martin Fourcade also affirmed that he “fully supports the Ukrainian people”. “I am 100% with them” and “this war is horrible”. “There is no part of me that understands the Russian government,” he said, saying he was in favor of sanctions against the Russian authorities. Ukraine is headwind against the possibility of a presence of Russian and Belarusian athletes at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, including under a neutral banner, envisaged by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) without anything having yet been decided in this direction. She threatened to boycott the competition.
Olympics 2024: Russia considers “unacceptable” the call to ban its athletes
Russia on Saturday denounced the call to ban Russian athletes from the 2024 Olympics, the day after a meeting where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for such a measure. “The attempt to dictate the conditions for the participation of athletes in international competitions is absolutely unacceptable. […]. We are currently seeing an undisguised desire to destroy the unity of international sport,” Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky estimated that the presence of Russian athletes at the Paris Olympics would be “a sign of violence and impunity”, trying during a meeting to convince sports ministers from several countries. Those calling for exclusion “would do better to take care of sport in their own countries and do everything so that sport is an ambassador of peace and helps to build bridges between peoples”, commented Saturday Oleg Matytsin. He assured that “nobody” had called for the exclusion of American athletes from the 2004 Olympics, after Washington’s invasion of Iraq.