Ukraine war: Russia may no longer fund Wagner Group, UK says

Jump to content Sign up to our newsletters Subscribe News Sport Voices Culture Lifestyle Travel Premium News World Europe Tara Cobham , Namita Singh Sunday 13 August 2023 11:08 Comments Close Huge smoke cloud rises after massive explosion at factory in Moscow Vladimir Putin may no longer be funding the mercenary Wagner Group, Britain’s defence ministry has said. The Russian state has acted against some other business interests of Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin after he led a failed mutiny against the country’s army’s top brass in June, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) said in its daily bulletin on Sunday, concluding: ‘There is a realistic possibility that the Kremlin no longer funds the group.’ “The second most plausible paymasters are the Belarusian authorities,” it said, adding that this would be a drain on Belarus’ resources. The ministry also said the Wagner Group was moving towards downsizing and reconfiguring to save on staff salary expenses at a time of financial pressure. This comes as Ukraine said its troops have made gains on the southern frontline and claimed to have captured unspecified territories. General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukrainian forces in the south, said the ‘defence forces are working’ in a message on Telegram on Saturday. Meanwhile, Kyiv said its forces had made progress near Robotyne on the front line in the southern Zaporizhzhia region. But the battlefield reports have not yet been independently verified. 1691908116 There is a ‘realistic possibility’ the Russian state no longer funds the Wagner Group, the UK Ministry of Defence has said. In its latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine, it states: ‘Since the abortive mutiny of June 2023, the Russian state has acted against some other business interests of Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin. There is a realistic possibility that the Kremlin no longer funds the group.’ The update suggests the Belarusian authorities are ‘the second most plausible paymasters’, but adds, ‘The sizable force would be a significant and potentially unwelcome drain on modest Belarusian resources.’ Overall, the MOD writes of the mercenaries currently experiencing ‘financial pressure’. It says: ‘The Wagner Group is likely moving towards a down-sizing and reconfiguration process, largely to save on staff salary expenses at a time of financial pressure.’ Tara Cobham 13 August 2023 07:28 1691921321 Russia’s emergency service said on Sunday that a large fire broke out at a warehouse in the town of Ramenskoye in Moscow region, Russian state news agency TASS reported. “The size of the fire is 1,800 square metres,” TASS quoted the statement. Another state news agency, RIA, reported that the fire broke out at a fertiliser storage. Videos of the fire posted online show thick black smoke and a flame, seen from hundreds of metres away. Tara Cobham 13 August 2023 11:08 1691920985 A Russian warship on Sunday opened warning fire on a Palau-flagged dry cargo ship in the southwestern Black Sea as it made its way to Ukraine, the Russian defence ministry said. Russia said its Vasily Bykov patrol ship fired with automatic weapons on the “Sukru Okan” vessel after the captain did not respond to a request to halt for an inspection. The Sukru Okan was making its way towards the Ukrainian port of Izmail, the defence ministry said. “To forcibly stop the vessel, warning fire was opened from automatic weapons,” the Russian defence ministy said. The Russian military boarded the vessel with the help of a Ka-29 helicopter. “After the inspection group completed its work on board, the Sukru Okan continued on its way to the port of Izmail,” the defence ministry said. Shipping databases list the Sukru Okan as a Palau-flagged vessel with a tonnage of 2155 whose home port is Istanbul. Tara Cobham 13 August 2023 11:03 1691919902 A baby is among the six civilians who were killed when Russian forces shelled two villages in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson on Sunday, Ukrainian authorities have said. A couple, their 23-day-old child and another man were killed in the village of Shyroka Balka, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. The couple’s 12-year-old son was critically wounded. Two people were killed and one wounded in the neighbouring village of Stanislav, which Klymenko said was struck 12 times with artillery. “The terrorists will never willingly stop killing civilians,” Klymenko wrote in a Telegram post along with two photos of damaged houses. “The terrorists must be stopped. With force. They don’t understand anything else.” Ukraine’s military reclaimed the western part of the Kherson region from Russian occupation last November but Kremlin forces have continued regularly shelling the area from across the Dnipro River. Tara Cobham 13 August 2023 10:45 1691916911 At least three Ukrainian drones have been launched over western regions of Russia on Sunday morning, Moscow’s defence ministry has said. Russian air defences shot down two drones over the Belgorod region and another over the Kursk region, it said. Drone air strikes deep inside Russia have increased since a drone was destroyed over the Kremlin in early May. Civilian areas of the capital were hit later in May and a Moscow business district was targeted twice in three days earlier this month. Tara Cobham 13 August 2023 09:55 1691914422 Search teams comb rubble after factory explosion outside Moscow Tara Cobham 13 August 2023 09:13 1691910618 Russia has vowed revenge after claiming to have shot down Ukrainian missiles targeting a key bridge linking them with the annexed Crimea. Videos on social media appeared to show smoke rising from near Kerch Bridge, an important resupply route for Russian forces. The Kremlin accused Ukraine of terrorism, while also claiming to have thwarted an attack by 20 drones targeting Crimea overnight. Russian foreign spokesperson Maria Zakharova wrote on Telegram: ‘There can be no justification for such barbaric actions and they will not go unanswered.’ Kremlin claims to have shot down three Ukrainian rockets targeting the Kerch bridge Tara Cobham 13 August 2023 08:10 1691906609 Poland’s defence minister said on Saturday that the country has increased the number of troops protecting its border with Belarus as a deterrent amid ‘destabilising’ actions by its pro-Russian neighbour. Mariusz Blaszczak met in Jarylowka, in eastern Poland, with some of the troops recently deployed close to the Belarus border. He insisted that the increased military presence is purely a deterrent move, not a hostile act, as Minsk and Moscow are claiming. ‘There is no doubt that the Belarus regime is cooperating with the Kremlin and that the attacks on the Polish border are intended to destabilise our country,’ Mr Blaszczak said. Poland’s defense minister says his country has increased the number of troops protecting its border with Belarus as a deterrent amid ‘destabilizing’ actions by its pro-Russian neighbor Namita Singh 13 August 2023 07:03 1691904809 A civilian was killed and six people were wounded, including a 12-year-old girl, following intense Ukrainian shelling in Donetsk, including cluster munitions, a Russian-installed official in the eastern Ukrainian region said on Saturday. One civilian was killed in a district of the city of Donetsk, while the six wounded people were in Makiivka, which lies east of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, the Russian-appointed head of the region, said on his Telegram channel. ‘In total, the enemy fired 127 rounds of ammunition at peaceful cities and regions in the republic,’ Mr Pushilin said, referring to the Donetsk People’s Republic as Moscow calls the region it said last year it was annexing. Rescuers carry a wounded person from a damaged residential building following Russian missiles strikes in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, amid Russian invasion of Ukraine Mr Pushilin said cluster munitions were among the artillery used. Both sides have used cluster munitions in the course of Russia’s 17-month-old invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv received cluster munitions from the United States last month and vowed to only use them against concentrations of enemy soldiers. Reuters could not independently verify the information out of Donetsk, which had been partly controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014. Russia, which early last year launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that it calls a ‘special military operation,’ says Ukrainian forces shell the Russian-controlled parts of the Donetsk region on a daily basis. Namita Singh 13 August 2023 06:33 1691902800 Ukraine has been holding consultations with the UK to secure security guarantees. Kyiv aims to have the first agreement in place by the end of the year and is pushing to secure guarantees from powers including the US in hopes it may be let into the NATO alliance. Ukrainian president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said: “Our goal is to have the first such agreements in place by the end of the year. “Our consultations with Britain have begun.” Chief of Staff of Ukrainian Presidential Office Andriy Yermak speaks during a press conference Matt Drake 13 August 2023 06:00 Ukraine Russia Kyiv Vladimir Putin Moscow Crimea Kharkiv Zaporizhzhia The ministry also said the Wagner Group was moving towards downsizing and reconfiguring to save on staff salary expenses at a time of financial pressure Telegram Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in