Earlier, a US National Security Council (NSC) official told journalists that Washington had slammed Russia’s presidential election as “neither free nor fair.”

“We categorically reject this assessment. Speaking to journalists late in the evening yesterday, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin noted that such assessments were quite expected and predictable,” Peskov said, adding that the United States “is deeply involved” in the conflict in Ukraine.

“As a matter of fact, this country is fighting against us. Obviously, other assessments could hardly be expected, although, let me say it again: We categorically disagree with them and this is not an opinion we are willing to heed, nor is it of any importance to us these days,” he stressed.

Russia held its first three-day presidential election over the period March 15-17. Remote electronic voting, also a first, was available to voters in 29, or about one-third, of the country’s regions. According to the Central Election Commission, after 99.43% of vote tally reports by local election commissions had been processed, incumbent head of state Vladimir Putin held a resounding lead over his three rivals with 87.32% of the vote.

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“I can’t tell you anything now, I don’t know. Legally, no such structure exists,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, two days after Wagner’s head Yevgeny Prigozhin and his top brass died in a plane crash that Western officials claim was caused by an explosion.

But observers tell Al Jazeera that Wagner’s battle-tested fighters are too valuable to just be disbanded and let go.

What and who is left of Wagner is already being torn apart by Russia’s military, intelligence services, state-run corporations and private military companies (PMCs) financed by Kremlin allies or oligarchs – and even Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko may get his share.

Since 2014, Wagner employed thousands of experienced fighters of starkly different backgrounds. Some graduated from elite military and intelligence units, some fought for Moscow in Chechen wars, and some hailed from criminal groups that mushroomed in the former Soviet Union in the 1990s.

Last year, Wagner enlisted tens of thousands of inmates from Russian jails who were promised hefty paycheques and presidential pardons, but were largely used in what is known as “meat marches” on Ukrainian positions.

Few survived in what bled Ukrainian forces dry and stalled Kyiv’s counteroffensive, and even fewer stayed on.

Given the survivors’ battlefield prowess, the biggest question is whether the Kremlin would try to preserve Wagner under new management – or create its full-fledged replicas.

Both options seem hardly feasible for now.

‘Nothing quite like it’

What made Wagner stand out was the business acumen and nefarious charisma of Prigozhin, whose out-of-the-box thinking, obscene, megalomaniac diatribes, and insubordination were unprecedented in President Vladimir Putin’s Russia – and would make many James Bond movies’ villains pale in comparison.

The 62-year-old ex-convict – once known as “Putin’s chef” and blacklisted in the West – put together a business empire that traded in Syrian hydrocarbons, African diamonds, gold, timber and raw materials.

He inked lucrative security deals with sub-Saharan autocrats, ran catering businesses and hotels in Russia, and launched a troll farm that meddled in elections from Madagascar to the United States and spawned media outlets and Telegram channels.

Wagner was just the most visible jewel in his crown.

“Wagner was much more than just a PMC,” John Lechner, a US author who is writing a book about Prigozhin that summarises years of research in Africa, the Middle East, Russia and Ukraine, told Al Jazeera. “There’s really nothing quite like it that can replace it anytime soon.”

Ukraine’s top military expert agrees.

“Wagner is unique in its own way, and you need to credit Prigozhin with that,” Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told Al Jazeera.

Russia’s top brass will “will hardly be able to form something similar in the nearest future”, Romanenko said.

Wagner’s most valuable and lethal resource – battle-tested, seasoned fighters – is up for grabs, he said.

“They will pull people apart, the process is already going on,” he said. “Some will be removed, some fired. Some will move to other structures, some may be interested [in staying on] because they are well-trained storm troops.”

‘Not many’ Wagner fighters in Ukraine

Wagner has been cracking at the seams since Prigozhin’s aborted mutiny on June 23.

He said his “justice march” on Moscow that stopped 200km (125 miles) south of the Russian capital was triggered by a months-long feud with the defense ministry that “sabotaged” ammunition supplies.

The march was also sparked by Moscow’s ultimatum that each Wagner fighter had to sign a contract to become a cog in Russia’s military machine, known for its ineffectiveness, poor decision-making and logistics that turned Putin’s Ukrainian blitzkrieg into a quagmire with no end in sight.

Lukashenko brokered a truce between Prigozhin and the Kremlin, guaranteeing that Wagner fighters who didn’t want to sign up could relocate to Belarus.

Thousands already did and settled in camps built for them in the dense Belarusian forests that once hid World War II guerrillas fighting German Nazis.

“The most qualified part of them will get Belarusian citizenship and will be integrated in Belarusian law enforcement structures,” Belarusian-born, Kyiv-based analyst Igar Tyshkevich told Al Jazeera.

The recruits will help Lukashenko counter Moscow’s efforts to complete its subjugation of his ex-Soviet nation of 10 million.

Lukashenko will try to force the rest of Wagner fighters back to Russia, where the military, intelligence services, and state companies are already trying to fill the vacuum left by Prigozhin’s death, Tyshkevich said.

For example, Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest energy company, has long had its own security company launched by former special intelligence operations officers with the Soviet-era KGB.

In November, the Kremlin allowed Russian corporations to form their own private military companies, and Lukoil’s security service, Lukom-A, has been “actively boosting its military potential” to launch its own PMC, Tyshkevich said.

Similarly, security companies affiliated with Putin’s allies or Kremlin-controlled energy giants would keep in contact with what remains of Wagner to develop their own private military companies, he said.

Some Wagner fighters would prefer to maintain their independence and will “turn into a standard group of mercenaries or a private military company”, said Tyshkevich.

Others will become part of state corporations or intelligence services, and some have already signed contracts with the defense ministry, while those “pushed out” of Belarus may join them to fight in Ukraine, he added.

“But there won’t be many,” Tyshkevich said. “Wagner will fragment into several structures.”

Weaker replicas

“Experienced fighters went to the front line following their hearts to kick out [Ukrainian] nationalists,” an anchor with the Kremlin-controlled Channel One television network said in January, announcing a story about Fakel (Torch), another PMC.

The footage showed a dozen masked “ex-military officers” fighting in the southeastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, shelling and storming Ukrainian trenches.

It didn’t mention Fakel’s financial backers, but media reports suggest Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled natural gas producer and exporter, pays its bills – and also funds at least two more PMCs – Potok (Flow) and Plamya (Flame).

Molfar, a Ukrainian open-source intelligence group, said that as of March, 25 Russian private military companies operated in Ukraine.

They had names such as Redoubt, Anti-Terror Eagle, and Yastreb (Hawk) and mostly employed ex-military officers.

Two-thirds of them had ties to Russia’s defence ministry and intelligence services, and six were funded by oligarchs such as Putin’s longtime ally Gennady Timchenko and aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska, Molfar said.

What unites them is the Kremlin’s push to avoid the official involvement and death of regular Russian servicemen in Ukraine.

“Mercenaries are gathered to bypass inter-institutional and other frameworks and limitations that can’t possibly be followed,” Pavel Luzin, a fugitive Russian defence analyst, told Al Jazeera.

Most of these PMCs are small and their fighters complain of poor supply chains and coordination with other units.

But their sponsors fulfil two goals: to help the Kremlin avoid another round of mobilisation and to show Putin their loyalty, Lechner said.

‘Prigozhin’s charisma’

In the eyes of Russian law, private military companies are still illegal, which makes their sponsors or members subject to prosecution if they disobey Moscow the way Prigozhin did.

But none have a chance to eclipse him.

“There’s plenty of military talent among the other commanders, but Prigozhin’s charisma, his ability to bring things together as a logistician, as a manager – that would be difficult for them to replace in one man,” Lechner said.

But the war in Ukraine – along with Russia’s ambitions in other parts of the world – will likely keep these PMCs afloat and alive.

“Russian mercenaries are here to stay,” said Lechner. “It might be in a less charismatic form, but they’ve created the market for themselves and for others probably, too.”

The post What will replace Russia’s Wagner mercenary army? appeared first on News Agency nabakhabar.

Russian authorities have yet to confirm via a DNA test that the 62-year-old’s body was among the charred and mangled remnants of 10 people found in the debris of the private jet that crashed 350km (217 miles) northwest of Moscow late on Wednesday.

Prigozhin was, however, listed as one of the plane’s passengers – along with the company’s founder and neo-Nazi sympathiser Dmitry Utkin nicknamed Wagner.

Few doubt Prigozhin’s presumed death, which took place exactly two months after the June 23 “justice march”, as he called it, of thousands of Wagner’s best fighters towards Moscow. The rebellion sowed panic in the Kremlin and reportedly forced Russian President Vladimir Putin to flee Moscow.

The uprising was triggered by a months-old conflict with Russia’s Ministry of Defence that delayed or sabotaged ammunition supplies to Wagner on the front lines of southeastern Ukraine.

The march stopped only 200km (124 miles) south of Moscow after Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko promised Prigozhin and all of Wagner a safe haven in his forested ex-Soviet nation bordering Ukraine.

A top expert on Wagner is all but certain that Prigozhin is dead.

“I’ve heard from a source in Wagner close to him that it’s likely true,” John Lechner, an investigative reporter in the United States who is writing a book about Prigozhin summarising years of research, told Al Jazeera shortly after Russian media reported the plane crash.

Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the claim.

A cameraman films wreckage of the private jet linked to Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin near the crash site in the Tver region, Russia [Marina Lystseva/Reuters]

Dead or alive?

But those who doubt the demise cite Prigozhin’s penchant for disguises – and his chance to escape to the Central African Republic, Mali or other African nations where Wagner provides “security services” to local strongmen in exchange for a stake in mining and trading local natural resources.

Russian police discovered a stash of fake passports with Prigozhin’s mugshots and names of other people a day after the failed coup, and framed photos of him wearing wigs, glasses and beards were found in his St. Petersburg mansion and immediately ridiculed in online memes.

“It’s nice and easy to fake one’s own death,” Ukrainian defence expert Maria Kucherenko, who authored a detailed report on Wagner, wrote on Facebook late Thursday.

But there are no chances of really faking Prigozhin’s death in Russia, given the scrutiny of officials and forensics experts investigating the crash, said another analyst.

“There could have been rumours [of fake death] had he done it in Africa, but not in Russia, where a DNA test will be quickly performed,” Nikolay Mitrokhin of Germany’s University of Bremen told Al Jazeera.

Plane downed?

The DNA tests will be scrupulously monitored by the Kremlin given that it is the main benefactor of Prigozhin’s death, Mitrokhin said.

“Judging by the sources, the plane was shot down. That’s what easy to believe. It is very beneficial for Russian authorities who can always shift the blame to an [air defence] lieutenant or major who made the mistake,” he said.

According to a cellphone video purportedly showing Prigozhin’s Legacy Embraer jet midair, it was falling, not gliding down, and apparently had only one engine running.

A plume of smoke that did not resemble exhaust was seen behind the plane, and its tail and one of the wings fell far apart from the fuselage, which may indicate that the crash was caused by an explosion, according to the photos and videos from the crash site.

In another amateur video showing the falling plane, witnesses say they had heard “two explosions”. Air defence forces routinely shoot at a plane twice to ensure it is hit.

A source in Russia’s main aviation oversight body told the Tsargrad television channel that the plane was “blown up”.

However, Flightradar 24, a Swedish aircraft tracker, said that the Brazilian-made jet went up to 8,500 metres (28,000 feet).

Very few air defence weapons can hit a plane that high – and the Kremlin allegedly used two S-300 missiles, the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel with links to Russian law enforcement agencies claimed.

Putin’s revenge?

Putin, a former KGB colonel who headed the FSB, the main KGB successor, in the late 1990s, is notoriously vindictive.

Kremlin critics cite the case of Alexander Litvinenko, an FSB expert on organised crime who accused Putin of profiting from drug trafficking and money laundering.

Litvinenko defected to the United Kingdom and died an agonising death in 2006 after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210, an extremely rare and expensive poison.

Putin called Litvinenko a “traitor”, and London said the Russian president “probably” sanctioned the assassination.

“Traitors” was the epithet Putin used in his televised address on the day of Prigozhin’s mutiny.

And even though the riot was called off and Wagner marched back to Russia-occupied areas in southeastern Ukraine, Putin’s reputation suffered greatly.

High treason charges against Wagner’s chief and officers who shot down several Russian aircraft during their march were dropped a day later.

What’s next for Wagner?

Unlike other Putin allies who prefer to keep a low profile, Prigozhin was a motormouth.

For months before the mutiny, he lambasted Russia’s top brass.

And after it, thousands of key Wagner fighters relocated to hastily built camps in Belarusian forests.

Some were spotted near the Suwalki Gap near the Polish-Lithuanian border that separates Belarus from Kaliningrad, Russia’s Baltic exclave.

Prigozhin visited Russia several times and even met with Putin, while Wagner’s recruitment centres continued to operate.

So, Putin may have followed the example of cinematic mafia boss Michael Corleone by serving his revenge cold, a Russian opposition activist said.

“Prigozhin was relocated from the country. Within two months, they redistributed his assets, checked all contact chains, and replaced everything in the system that needed replacement. And now just got rid of [Prigozhin and his top lieutenants],” Sergey Bizyukin told Al Jazeera.

“I don’t know whether [Prigozhin] had a chance to sit it all out in Belarus, but that was his only teeny-weeny chance” to survive, Bizyukin said.

But since Wagner proved to be so effective, it may continue to exist and operate in Ukraine and elsewhere – even if it’s not just “bled dry, but decapitated”, according to independent military analyst David Gendelman.

The plane crash reportedly wiped out Wagner’s top brass.

One of the killed passengers was Valery Chkalov, a key Prigozhin ally in charge of Wagner’s logistics in Ukraine, Syria and Africa. Others were key lieutenants Yevgeny Makaryan and Sergey Propustin.

But the company’s resources, including battle-tested fighters and smoothly functioning operations in Africa, are too valuable for the Kremlin to let Wagner disband, Gendelman said.

“So, they will most likely keep operating under new control affiliated somehow with Russia’s leadership. And, perhaps, such control has already been organised as part of the preparation to behead the organisation,” he told Al Jazeera.

But Wagner’s – and Moscow’s – clout in Africa may eclipse because of the rising influence of China and other core members of the now-expanding BRICS bloc.

“Russia’s sway in Africa will weaken irrespective of personalities at the helm” of Wagner, Kyiv-based analyst Aleksey Kushch told Al Jazeera.

The post Will Russia’s Putin benefit from Prigozhin’s presumed plane crash death? appeared first on News Agency nabakhabar.

To the Kremlin and pro-Moscow separatists, though, taking the town with a pre-war population near 10,000 would be a groundbreaking triumph.

And to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner Group, a private army, Soledar offers access to mineral riches, a stash of firearms and a higher place in the Kremlin’s pecking order.

Prigozhin is known as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “chef” after becoming rich from government contracts to feed soldiers, schoolchildren and guests at state banquets.

For months, he has been trying to seize the nearby city of Bakhmut – an important logistical hub whose takeover would allow Russian and separatist forces to advance deep into southeastern Ukraine.

Despite countless attacks, shelling and a reported loss of thousands of soldiers, including fighters who were recruited from Russian jails, freshly mobilized reservists and forcibly conscripted men from separatist-held Ukrainian areas, the Wagner Group has failed to decisively take Bakhmut.

This setback is especially humiliating after a months-long series of Russian defeats and retreats in eastern and southern Ukraine that have highlighted what some observers view as disorganized, badly coordinated and poorly motivated Russian forces.

So Moscow needs a victory – if not a strategic one, then at least something that can be trumpeted on Kremlin-controlled television networks and reported to Putin.

“There is a propaganda viewpoint – if Bakhmut [can’t be taken], then they need to show at least something because Prigozhin promised it to Putin,” Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy chief of the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, told Al Jazeera.

The “encircling” of Soledar was reported late on Tuesday and presented as a deed solely achieved by the Wagner army.

“I’d like to emphasize again that no other military units except the Wagner fighters [took] part in the storming of Soledar,” Prigozhin told the Kremlin-funded RIA Novosti news agency.

His press service then released photos allegedly taken in the salt mines under Soledar.

Ukraine’s military denied his claims.

Soledar’s takeover “is not true”, spokesman Serhiy Cherevatyi told Al Jazeera. “Wait for a detailed report by the armed forces.

The press service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said the photos had actually been taken in Volodymyrivka, a separatist-controlled town in the eastern region of Donetsk.

And Prigozhin’s words about the exclusive role of his army were even disputed by the Russian Ministry of Defence, which said on Wednesday that its paratroopers had “blocked” Soledar’s south and north and were engaged in fighting in the town’s centre.

The Kremlin urged caution.

“Let’s not rush. Let’s wait for official announcements,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said while describing a “positive dynamic in advances” in Soledar.

Meanwhile, a separatist leader hailed Soledar’s “takeover” as a step towards gaining full control of Donetsk, parts of which have been occupied by pro-Moscow rebels since 2014.

“This is a groundbreaking moment,” Denis Pushilin told the NTV television network. “We are preparing the moment we’ve been waiting for, the liberation of the ‘People’s Republic of Donetsk’.”

To other pro-Kremlin Russians, Soledar is a devastating Ukrainian loss of manpower and a personal defeat for Kyiv’s commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

“Zaluzhny never counted losses anyway, but here, he exceeded himself by herding thousands of soldiers to die or be captured,” Herman Kulikovsky, a popular Russian military analyst, wrote on Telegram on Wednesday.

“Actually, the Wagner troops didn’t just destroy a significant part of Ukrainian forces who attempted to keep Soledar but also distracted a part of the forces, reserves and – most importantly – the attention of Ukraine’s General Staff from other front lines,” he wrote.

“If there is no Soledar, there is no Ukraine,” pro-Kremlin publicist Zakhar Prilepin said on Telegram.

The town is certainly key to seizing Bakhmut.

But what’s under and around it also offers an explanation as to why Wagner’s Prigozhin is so desperate to control the town and monopolise its takeover in the eyes of the Kremlin.

The salt mines under Soledar contain a major military prize, huge depots of firearms dating back to World War II.

Salt absorbs water and prevents rust, and Moscow began loading the mines with Nazi trophy weaponry and hundreds of thousands of Soviet small arms in the late 1950s, according to Nikolay Mitrokhin, a historian with Germany’s Bremen University.

“That’s why the Ukrainian military deployed a battalion of special forces there in the spring of 2014 and defended the mines from the Donetsk [separatist] militias thronging at the gates,” he told Al Jazeera.

The depot may not have been fully evacuated because its lift cannot bring more than a dozen crates to the surface at a time, he said.

Soledar’s salt could be just as valuable.

The town, whose name means “a gift of salt”, once provided up to 40 percent of the Soviet Union’s edible salt.

Before the war, it supplied about 90 percent of salt in all of Ukraine, and hostilities around the town caused a spike in prices.

The town’s environs are also rich in alabaster, valuable clay for ceramics and coal.

And Prigozhin is known for having business interests that go far beyond maintaining a private army.

His fighters are understood to have cut their teeth in Syria, helping President Bashar Assad regain most of the war-torn nation.

Then Evro Polis, a company Prigozhin controls, signed a deal to develop Syrian oil- and gasfields and restore energy infrastructure, according to Russian and Western media reports.

Some Wagner units relocated to the war-scarred Central African Republic and helped Prigozhin gain control of the lucrative trade in “blood diamonds”, according to the France-based All Eyes on Wagner research group.

Apart from Soledar, the southeastern region of Donbas is Ukraine’s treasure trove of mineral riches, metallurgical and chemical plants.

“Donbas is rich in raw materials, and its industrial complex could also be utilised,” Aleksey Kushch, a Kyiv-based analyst, told Al Jazeera.

“I think a far more valuable prize is at stake – a place in Russia’s political hierarchy,” Kushch said, referring to Prigozhin’s ambitions to gain more clout within the Kremlin.

The post Why does ‘Putin’s chef’ want Ukraine’s Soledar so badly? appeared first on News Agency nabakhabar.

Monday, May 23, 2022

Kremlin says sanctions against Russia cause the threat of global food crisis

Russia cannot be blamed for a possible global food crisis and the fundamental reason is the sanctions against the country, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Agreeing with the UN assessments about the possibility of a global food crisis, Peskov said the ban on deliveries of fertilisers and other restrictions imposed on Russia in connection with the Russia-Ukraine conflict is among the reasons that provoke it.

Responding to accusations about blockades on the export of Ukraine’s grain via sea routes, Peskov pointed out that the Ukrainian ports were mined by its military to prevent the entrance of the Russian warship.

Russian diplomat quits over Ukraine conflict

A Russian diplomat in Geneva has left his job in protest at the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine, telling diplomatic colleagues: “Never have I been so ashamed of my country.”

Boris Bondarev, a counsellor at Moscow’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva, wrote in a letter that he was leaving after 20 years in the diplomatic service, decrying Russia’s attacks in its Western neighbour.

In the letter, he condemned “the aggressive war unleashed by Putin against Ukraine and in fact against the entire Western world”. This, he said, was “not only a crime against the Ukrainian people but also, perhaps, the most serious crime against the people of Russia”.

Russian, Belarusian presidents hail Moscow’s resilience to sanctions

Russia’s economy shows good resilience to sanctions, the country’s President Vladimir Putin said.

Speaking at a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko, Putin noted that the current situation and unprecedented restrictions, imposed on Russia due to the war in Ukraine, demand great efforts from the Russian government, but these efforts give a good result.

“Despite all difficulties, I would like to note that the Russian economy is withstanding the sanctions blow, it is withstanding very well. This is indicated by all the main macroeconomic indicators,” he said.

Kremlin slams ‘terror attack’ on Ukraine’s pro-Moscow official

The Kremlin accused Ukrainian nationalists of carrying out a “terror attack” against an official installed by Moscow in southern Ukraine.

Andrey Shevchik was appointed as mayor of Energodar in the Zaporizhzhia region after Russian troops took control of the town, the site of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, during Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine.

On Sunday, Shevchik and his two guards were wounded in the explosion as they were entering a building.

Russian-controlled Ukraine region declares rouble official currency

Authorities in the Moscow-controlled Ukrainian region of Kherson announced the introduction of the rouble as an official currency alongside the Ukrainian hryvnia.

The region’s capital Kherson was the first major city to fall to Russian forces after the start of Moscow’s military operation.

“Today a decree will be issued that formalizes the introduction in the Kherson region of dual currency,” the pro-Moscow head of the regional administration, Vladimir Saldo, said in a video address.

Starbucks says it will completely exit Russia

Starbucks said it will cease operations in Russia, shuttering its 130 cafes in the country.

The coffee chain, which suspended its operations in early March following the Ukraine-Russia conflict, said it will “exit” Russia and “no longer have a brand presence in the market.”

“We will continue to support the nearly 2,000 green apron partners in Russia, including pay for six months and assistance for partners to transition to new opportunities outside of Starbucks,” the company said.

Zelenskyy calls for more sanctions on Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has used the Davos summit to appeal for more weapons for his country and “maximum” sanctions against Moscow.

Speaking by videolink, Zelenskyy told the World Economic Forum that tens of thousands of lives would have been saved if Kiev had received “100 percent of our needs at once back in February” when Russia attacked Ukraine.

Addressing the gathering of the world’s political and business elites, Zelenskyy called for an oil embargo on Russia, punitive measures against all its banks and the shunning of its IT sector, adding that all foreign companies should leave the country.

Russia says fired cruise missiles to destroy Ukrainian weapons

Russia’s defense ministry says it has fired four Kalibr missiles from a submarine in the Black Sea to destroy the military equipment of a Ukrainian mountain assault brigade, the TASS news agency has reported.

It was not immediately possible to verify the report.

UN: More than 6.5 million people have fled Ukraine

More than 6.5 million people have fled Ukraine since late February, according to the UN refugee agency.

Since Russia’s attacks began on February 24, 6,538,998 refugees have left Ukraine, with the majority of them entering Poland.

Azovstal fighters to face trial in the breakaway region

The leader of Ukraine’s breakaway so-called Donetsk People’s Republic has said the fighters who surrendered at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol will a face trial in the separatist region.

“The prisoners from Azovstal are being held on the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” Interfax news agency quoted Denis Pushilin as saying.

“Organising an international tribunal on the republic’s territory is also planned,” Pushilin added, but it was not clear what charges the fighters would face.

Russian soldier sentenced to life in Ukraine

A Ukrainian court has sentenced a 21-year-old Russian soldier to life in prison for killing a Ukrainian civilian, in the first “war crimes” trial held since Russia’s attacks began.

Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin was accused of shooting a Ukrainian civilian in the head in a village in the northeastern Sumy region in the early days of Moscow’s offensive.

He pleaded guilty and testified that he shot the man after being ordered to do so. He told the court that an officer insisted that the Ukrainian man, who was speaking on his cellphone, could pinpoint their location to the Ukrainian forces.

Poland to terminate the agreement with Russia regarding Yamal gas pipeline

Poland has decided to terminate an intergovernmental agreement with Russia regarding the Yamal gas pipeline, Polish Climate Minister Anna Moskwa has said on Twitter.

“Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has confirmed the accuracy of the Polish government’s determination to become completely independent from Russian gas. We always knew that Gazprom was not a reliable partner,” Moskwa said.

Kremlin: The west triggered a global food crisis with sanctions

The Kremlin has said that the West triggered a global food crisis by imposing the severest sanctions in modern history on Russia.

President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said, agreed with the United Nations assessment that the world faced a food crisis that could cause famine.

“Russia has always been a rather reliable grain exporter,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. “We are not the source of the problem.”

Meanwhile, RIA cited Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko as saying Russia will be ready to return to negotiations with Ukraine “as soon as Kiev shows a constructive position”.

Biden: Russia must pay a long-term price for Ukraine attack

President Joe Biden has said that Russia “has to pay a long-term price” for its “barbarism in Ukraine” in terms of sanctions imposed on Moscow by the United States and its allies.

He said that if, after any future rapprochement between Russia and Ukraine, “the sanctions are not continued to be sustained in many ways, then what signal does that send to China about the cost of attempting to take Taiwan by force?”

Russian offensive intensifies in Donbass

Ukrainians have been digging in to defend the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, which came under heavy bombardment from Russian forces trying to take the industrial area known as the Donbas.

Luhansk’s governor, Serhii Haidai, said on Sunday that the Russians were “simply intentionally trying to destroy the city … engaging in a scorched-earth approach.”

He said the Russians had occupied several towns and cities in Luhansk after 24-hour shelling.

Russian soldiers start clearing mines from Ukraine’s Azovstal

Russian soldiers have cleared mines and debris on the industrial grounds of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol after hundreds of Ukrainian forces holed up in the vast plant for weeks were ordered to stand down.

Soldiers walked through the compound and swung mine detectors over roads littered with debris on Sunday, while others checked under objects for the explosive devices, video footage showed.

“The task is huge, the enemy planted their own landmines, we had also planted anti-personnel mines while blocking the enemy. So we’ve got some two weeks of work ahead of us,” said a Russian soldier who only gave his nom de guerre Babai.

Biden and Kishida discuss Ukraine

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and US President Joe Biden have discussed the situation in Ukraine at a meeting in Tokyo.

“Russia’s aggression against Ukraine undermines the foundation of global order and we can’t, in no way, allow whatsoever such attempts to change the status quo by force wherever it may be around the world,” Kishida said.

Biden also assured Kishida that the US remains fully committed to Japan’s defense and announced the launch of a new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

Ukraine top of agenda in Davos as business leaders gather

Ukraine is top of the agenda for the four-day meeting of global business leaders, which kicks off in earnest on Monday with a video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“This is the world’s most influential economic platform, where Ukraine has something to say,” Zelenskyy said in his daily video address.

Russian politicians, executives and academics will be entirely absent while the Ukrainian artists are hoping to get their message of fighting for a better future to world leaders in Davos.

Visitors are confronted by images such as a badly burned man in Kharkiv city after Russian shelling and a film made up of thousands of pictures of dead civilians and bombed houses.

The post Live blog: Sanctions on Russia cause threat of global food crisis – Kremlin appeared first on News Agency nabakhabar.

The new service, known as Rossgram, will launch on March 28 and have additional functions such as crowdfunding and paid access for some content, its website said on Wednesday.

“My partner Kirill Filimonov and our group of developers were already ready for this turn of events and decided not to miss the opportunity to create a Russian analog of a popular social network beloved by our compatriots,” Alexander Zobov, the initiative’s public relations director, wrote on the VKontakte social network.

Russian state communications regulator Roskomnadzor blocked access to Instagram from Monday after its US owner Meta Platforms said last week it would allow social media users in Ukraine to post messages such as “Death to the Russian invaders”.

Meta, which also owns Facebook, said the temporary change in its hate speech policy only applied to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, saying it would be wrong to prevent Ukrainians “expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces”.

Meta said on Sunday it was narrowing its content moderation policy for Ukraine to prohibit calls for the death of a head of state.

Russia, which has already banned Facebook, has opened a criminal investigation against Meta and prosecutors asked a court to designate the U.S. tech giant an “extremist organization”.

The case is due in court on Monday.

According to a photo shared by Zobov on Vkontakte, Rossgram’s color scheme and layout will bear a strong resemblance to Instagram.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Rossgram’s design.

Russia has in recent months been developing its domestic technology, including AYYA T1 smartphones produced by state conglomerate Rostec.

In November, Gazprom Media launched Yappy as a domestic rival to video-sharing platform TikTok.

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President Vladimir Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron that the United States ignored Russia’s key security demands in written responses submitted this week, the Kremlin said Friday.

The U.S. and NATO on Wednesday formally rejected Russia’s demand to permanently bar Ukraine from NATO, but outlined areas where they could increase cooperation with Moscow.

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“Russia cannot take any measures to de-escalate,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

“We have seen the messages that more than 120,000 Ukrainian troops have been deployed to the conflict zone. This raises our fears that sentiments in Ukraine in favor of a military solution to the Donbass problem could prevail,” Peskov said.

“This is very dangerous adventurism. All this causes us deep concern because this is happening in the immediate vicinity of our borders.”

Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow would seek Western guarantees that would preclude any further NATO expansion and deployment of its weapons near Russia’s borders.

Speaking at a Kremlin ceremony where he received credentials from foreign ambassadors, Putin emphasized Russia will seek “strong, reliable and long-term guarantees of its security.”

Statements from Russia came amid Ukrainian and Western worries about an alleged plan by Moscow to invade Ukraine.

Growing tensions

Tensions have been soaring in recent weeks about a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine, which worried Ukrainian and Western officials, who saw it as a possible sign of Moscow’s intention to invade its ex-Soviet neighbor.

NATO foreign ministers warned Russia on Tuesday that any attempt to further destabilize Ukraine would be a costly mistake.

The Kremlin has insisted it has no such intention and has accused Ukraine and its Western backers of making the claims to cover up their own allegedly aggressive designs.

The Kremlin also said its posture is purely defensive.

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Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said he has no information about some new plan for a peace settlement in Donbass the Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has announced.

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“This is nothing but interference in Russia’s domestic affairs … In general, we can only express our regret, as our opponents use methods that damage our bilateral relations,” Peskov told reporters.

When asked why the West introduced targeted sanctions instead of restrictions against major businesses or state debt, the Kremlin spokesman said it was not up to him to ‘explain the motives’.

“We believe that all these decisions, both targeted and others, are absurd and absolutely groundless. The most important thing is, they have no effect and no sense,” Peskov continued.

Meanwhile, Russia also warned the United States it would ‘rebuff aggression’ on Wednesday after Washington imposed sanctions on Kremlin’s officials over the poisoning of prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“We will continue to systematically and resolutely defend our national interests and rebuff aggression,” said Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

She further threatened the United States that Kremlin’s reaction would be based on ‘reciprocity and not necessarily symmetrically’.

The comments came after the US along with the European Union on Tuesday imposed penalties after US intelligence concluded that Russia was behind the poisoning of Navalny.

Accusing Washington of ‘trying to cultivate the image of an external enemy’, the spokesperson asked the US and its European allies to ‘not play with fire’.

Biden’s administration has frozen any US assets of seven Russian officials, including the director of FSB, Russia’s intelligence organisation.

It has also criminalised any transactions with these seven officials.

The action has been taken after US intelligence assessed ‘with high confidence’ that FSB officials poisoned Navalny with the nerve agent Novichok on August 20, 2020, a US official told reporters.

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