As the Wagner Armed Group began handing over the town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine to the Russian army, the New York Times reported: “U.S. intelligence estimates indicated that a special Ukrainian army or intelligence unit may have staged a drone attack on the Kremlin this month. and immediately, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed what was published in the newspaper, saying: Moscow knew from the very beginning that Ukraine was responsible for the attack, while Ukraine denied the information of the American newspaper, and adviser to the President of Ukraine Mikhailo Podolyak said: Kiev has nothing to do. to do with the bizarre attack. It’s useless, and Podolyak moved in a statement released by Reuters to suggest that Russia is trying to cut arms supplies to Kiev, playing on Western fears of a possible escalation due to alleged Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory Armed People, on Monday and Tuesday, from Ukraine to the Russian border region of Belgorod, and it took Moscow more than 24 hours to repel them, which also sheds light on the difficulties faced by its armed forces.
The commander of the Wagner armed group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on Thursday in a video released by his press service: “We are in the process of withdrawing our units from Bakhmut, and from now until May 1, most of them (units) will return. to the rear bases. We will return our positions to the military, with ammunition and everything that they have.
Prigozhin appeared during a conversation with a number of his fighters, some of whom complained about the need to repair their military equipment, and indicated that some elements of Wagner could remain in the city to support the Russian troops in case they ran into any difficulties, and Wagner’s forces formed the spearhead in the Battle of Bakhmut, which began a few months ago and is considered the longest since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine in February 2022.
Wagner’s troops and the Russian army announced they were ending control of the city, which has been almost completely destroyed since the fighting began. On Wednesday, Prigozhin admitted that about 10,000 of the 50,000 prisoners he recruited from Russian prisons were killed in Ukraine on the front line in the Battle of Bakhmut.
Prigozhin, who served years in prison during the Soviet era, last year recruited prisoners to fight with his group, promising detainees to have their sentences revoked if they survived the fighting.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied the loss of Bakhmut, and his army confirmed that it still controls a small enclave in the west of the city, striking Russian positions, and therefore Ukraine is betting on progress in the area of \u200b\u200bthis city in the hope of achieving his “tactical environment.”
For its part, the Ukrainian Air Force spoke at night about a new Russian attack using 36 Iranian-made Shahed drones, all of which were shot down in the air. Zelensky said via the Telegram app: Moscow continues to try to intimidate Ukraine, and launched 36 drones overnight, but none of them reached their goal, thanks to their country’s air defense.
And the Ukrainian Air Force said the enemy was clearly targeting basic infrastructure and military installations in the south of the country.
For their part, the pro-Russian authorities in Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, said they shot down six Ukrainian marches overnight. In Russia, authorities last week faced an incursion by groups that had infiltrated the borders of the two countries from Ukraine.
The invasion took place in several cities in the Belgorod region and was reported by armed Russian groups based in Ukraine, saying they wanted to strike at the “authority” of President Vladimir Putin.
And if Moscow stated that it “crushed” the armed group with aviation and artillery, killing 70 people, then the militants who held a press conference in Ukraine on Wednesday recognized only two wounded in their ranks, on the other hand, the FSB Service (FSB) announced in Thursday In the past, Ukrainian “saboteurs” were arrested for planning an attack on Russian nuclear power plants.
A report circulated by a local news agency said: “A sabotage group of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine … tried to blow up about thirty power lines to the Leningrad and Kalinin nuclear power plants” in the country’s northwest in early May.
This came after a series of field setbacks by Russian troops, who were forced to retreat from the outskirts of Kyiv, then from Kharkov in northeastern Ukraine and the city of Kherson in the south.
On the other hand, Wagner’s boss took the opportunity to criticize his rival, the Russian Ministry of Defense, saying it was “absolutely unable to handle” the incursions. Last Wednesday, he asked what guarantees we had that they would not come to Moscow tomorrow.
And the Russian Foreign Ministry also announced last Thursday that it was closing its consulate in the city of Gothenburg and the Swedish consulate in St. Petersburg, effective September 1, and expelling five Swedish diplomats after Stockholm expelled five Russian diplomats in April.