Is the big Ukrainian offensive imminent? At a time when kyiv says it is completing its preparations, the authorities installed by Russia in areas it occupies in southern Ukraine announced on Friday May 5 the partial evacuation of 18 localities. A sign that they anticipate an upcoming conflagration of the front.
Wagner Group threatens to withdraw from Bakhmout
Yevgeny Prigojine, the boss of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, threatened on Friday to withdraw his troops next week from the town of Bakhmout, the epicenter of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, accusing the Russian general staff of the deprive of ammunition.
Wagner’s chief has for months accused the Russian general staff of not providing enough ammunition to his men to deprive them of a victory in Bakhmout which would overshadow the regular army, which suffered setbacks last year. But, in three videos released by his press service on Friday, the attacks by Yevgeny Prigojine reach an unprecedented level, exposing the strong tensions that exist within the forces of Moscow.
“On May 10, 2023, we will have to transfer our positions in Bakhmout to units of the Ministry of Defense and withdraw Wagner’s elements to the rear to heal our wounds,” he said. Yevgueni Prigojine justifies this decision by his refusal to let “(his) guys, without ammunition, suffer unnecessary and unjustified losses”.
If these statements take the form of an announcement, it could in fact be an ultimatum: the boss of Wagner is accustomed to hot statements and he sometimes backtracks. A withdrawal of Wagner from Bakhmout, where this organization is in the front line, would leave the Russian army in a delicate position, at a time when the Ukrainians say they are completing their preparations before a major offensive presented as imminent.
The businessman also blamed the high command for the “tens of thousands” of Russians killed and injured in Ukraine. “They will bear the responsibility for tens of thousands of killed and injured in front of their mothers and children,” he pinged in a new video.
Russia announces partial evacuation of occupied localities in the South
Russia announced Friday a partial evacuation of 18 localities under Russian occupation in the region of Zaporizhia, in the south of Ukraine. “In recent days, the enemy has increased the bombing of localities located in the direct vicinity of the line of contact,” said Evgueni Balitski, the regional manager installed by Moscow, on Telegram.
“For this reason, it was decided to first remove children with their parents, the elderly and disabled, hospital patients, enemy fire and move them inside the region” , he continued, assuring that the evacuations would be “temporary”.
Among the 18 localities concerned is in particular Energodar, the city where the Zaporijia nuclear power plant is located, controlled by the Russian army since March 2022 and repeatedly targeted by shootings, raising fears of a disaster. Last fall, the Russian occupation authorities announced similar evacuations in the Kherson region, shortly before an offensive that saw the Ukrainian army retake the regional capital from Russian occupation.
Russia: two artists deemed imprisoned for “apology” of terrorism
A Russian court on Friday placed in pre-trial detention Evguenia Berkovitch and Svetlana Petriïtchouk, two artists accused of advocating terrorism for one of their plays, in the midst of a crackdown on dissident voices in Russia since the military offensive in Ukraine. Evguenia Berkovitch, 38, and Svetlana Petriïtchouk, 43, who face up to seven years in prison, have been detained until July 4, said the Zamoskvoretsky court in Moscow, quoted by Russian news agencies.
The day before, they had been arrested and interrogated in Moscow by investigators. The two women are suspected of apologizing for terrorism for a play written by Svetlana Petriïtchouk and directed by Evguenia Berkovitch in 2020. The prosecutions against them caused a shock in the world of theater in Russia. The part in question, Finist is a valiant hawkplayed entirely by women, told the story of Russians recruited on the Internet by Islamists in Syria and leaving to join them to marry them.
Last year, Evguenia Berkovitch, mother of two minor children, had published verses against the offensive in Ukraine which had been “widespread”, underlines the text accompanying this petition. One of his poems, posted in May 2022 on Facebook, evoked the plight of civilians in the Ukrainian cities of Mariupol, Boutcha, Lyssytchansk and Borodianka, ravaged by the Russian assault.