10 Jul, 2023 05:49

Ukraine failed with new missile attack on Crimean Bridge – Moscow

Kiev attempted to strike three Russian regions in total, the Defense Ministry has said

Ukraine attempted a missile strike on the Crimean Bridge on Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. The attack also targeted several other Russian regions but did not result in any casualties or damage, the ministry added.

In a statement on Monday, officials said Ukraine hadused four S-200 air defense missilesmodified to strike ground targets. Facilities were targeted in Crimea – where the bridge linking the peninsula to mainland Russia was damaged by a bombing last year – as well as Rostov and Kaluga Regions in the southern and western parts of the country respectively.

According to Viktor Afzalov, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Air Force, air defenses destroyed two S-200s, and another two were jammed by electronic warfare measures.

He noted that one missile targeted the strategic Crimean Bridge, and another was flying towards a military airfield in Rostov Region. Kiev fired another two projectiles at a military airport in Kaluga Region, both of which were deflected by electronic warfare means, Afzalov said.

Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian General Staff, tasked the military with organizing systematic work to identify storage, preparation, and launching sites for S-200 missiles and similar weapons, as well as laying the groundwork for staging preemptive strikes. He also ordered the military to “take additional measures to improve the protection of facilities from air strikes as soon as possible.”

The Defense Ministry’s statement comes after Sergey Aksyonov, the governor of Crimea, said on Sunday that Russian air defenses downed a missile in the vicinity of Kerch, not far from the Crimean Bridge.

The structure had already been damaged in a truck explosion last October, which also killed several people. Moscow described the incident as a “terror attack” masterminded by Ukrainian intelligence services, and responded by intensifying missile strikes on Ukrainian energy and military infrastructure.

While Kiev denied any responsibility in the aftermath of the blast, on Saturday, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Maliar acknowledged Ukraine’s role in the attack, listing it among the achievements of the country’s armed forces and saying that the strike sought to derail Russian logistics.

https://www.rt.com/russia/579455-kiev-failed-strike-crimea-mod/

10 Jul, 2023 10:23

Putin met Wagner chief after mutiny – Kremlin

The meeting with Evgeny Prigozhin took place on June 29, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the head of the Wagner private military company, Evgeny Prigozhin, several days after the group aborted a mutiny as part of a Belarus-mediated deal, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters, Peskov confirmed a report by French newspaper Liberation, which claimed that the Russian leader had met with the Wagner chief. “The president had such a meeting. Thirty-five people were invited to it – all unit commanders and the company’s management, including Prigozhin himself,” he said. According to the spokesman, the gathering took place in the Kremlin on June 29 and lasted almost three hours.

Peskov added that the president had given “an evaluation of the company’s actions” during the conflict with Ukraine, and had spoken about his assessment of the events of June 24, the day Wagner troops marched on Moscow.

“Putin listened to the commanders’ explanations and offered further employment and combat deployment options,” Peskov stated. He added that Wagner commanders had provided their account of the mutiny, while “emphasizing that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state,” and are “ready to fight for the motherland going forward.”

On June 23, Prigozhin vowed retaliation after accusing the Russian Defense Ministry of staging a fatal missile strike on a Wagner camp. In the following hours, the company’s troops captured several military installations in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, with some forces marching on Moscow. A criminal case was opened against Prigozhin.

Prigozhin agreed to halt Wagner’s advance on June 24 as part of a deal with the Russian government mediated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. According to the terms, Moscow agreed to drop the criminal case against the Wagner chief, with Prigozhin consenting to move to Belarus.

Last week, Lukashenko suggested that Wagner forces could be used to defend Belarus, adding that he is “not troubled that we’ll have a certain number of these fighters stationed [in the country].”

(Kek, Putin and Commanders of Wagner discuss the success of the fake coup!)

https://www.rt.com/russia/579468-putin-met-wagner-chief-uprising/

10 Jul, 2023 01:05

NATO powers in ‘frantic’ race to conceive Ukraine deal – Politico

The US, UK, France, and Germany are reportedly trying to finalize a security pledge to Kiev ahead of the bloc’s Vilnius summit

Washington is reportedly rushing to complete an agreement with its most powerful NATO partners – the UK, Germany, and France – on a set of security guarantees for Ukraine so the deal can be presented to the full bloc when the Western military alliance gathers for a summit this week in Vilnius.

The group’s power brokers have been holding “frantic, last-minute” negotiations to finalize their agreement on a security declaration for Kiev, Politico reported on Sunday, citing four unidentified officials familiar with the talks. The declaration would create an “umbrella” for all countries willing to provide military aid to Ukraine, even though details of the security commitments may vary from nation to nation.

The US, UK, France, and Germany have been discussing the issue with Ukrainian leaders for weeks and have “reached out” to other allies within NATO, the EU, and the G7, Politico said. The four governments aim to unveil their framework agreement at the summit in hopes that other members will join with them in the security pledges. The two-day event is scheduled to begin on Tuesday.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has pressed for NATO to accelerate his country’s bid to join the alliance, but multiple members of the bloc have said Kiev can’t be admitted at least until its conflict with Russia ends. German officials are reportedly reluctant to give Ukraine any guarantees on future membership, given concern that such a move could trigger a direct conflict with Russia.

In lieu of pledging NATO membership,Washington is willing to give Ukraine security assurances similar to those it provides Israel, US President Joe Biden told CNN in a recent interview.

Staffers for Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will try to “iron out last-minute details” at a meeting on Monday in London, Politico said. The allies may essentially promise to keep providing much of the aid that they have been giving Ukraine since Russia began its offensive against Kiev in February 2022.

“It is basically a guarantee towardUkraine that we will – for a very long time to come – we will equip their armed forces, we will finance them, we will advise them, we will train themin order for them to have a deterrent force against any future aggression,” a senior NATO diplomat said.

US lawmakers have squabbled in recent days over Ukraine’s NATO prospects. Multiple Republican members of the US House and Senate have argued that allowing Ukraine to join the alliance would make Americans less safe because it could trigger a catastrophic conflict with Russia.

https://www.rt.com/news/579452-nato-race-ukraine-guarantees/