RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Top Russian general sends message to ’mutinous’ Wagner PMC

Deputy commander of the Russian Joint Forces, General Sergey Surovikin, asked on Friday the fighters of the private military company Wagner Group to stop their “rebellion” against Moscow.

In a short video message released on social media, Surovikin said he had just returned from the front, where Russian forces were standing their ground against the Ukrainian offensive.

“I appeal to the fighters and commanders of the PMC Wagner,” Surovikin said, still wearing his fatigues. “We have walked a difficult road together. We fought together, took risks together, suffered losses together, and won together. We are of the same blood. We are warriors. I urge you to stop. The enemy is just waiting for the internal political situation to worsen. We should not play into the enemy’s hands in these difficult times for our country.”

He urged Wagner troops to submit to the lawfully elected authorities “before it is too late,” return to their barracks and address their grievances peacefully.

Earlier on Friday, Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin accused the Russian military of targeting one of the company’s field camps in a rocket attack and killing “many fighters,” vowing to march on Moscow and deal with those responsible and warning the military to stay out of his way.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Prigozhin’s accusations “did not correspond to the truth” and were an “information provocation.” According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been briefed about the situation involving Prigozhin and Wagner, and all the necessary measures are being taken.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Friday that it had opened an investigation into Prigozhin for allegedly “calling for an armed rebellion.” The crime is punishable by 12-20 years in prison.

Surovikin, an air force general, was put in charge of the operation in Ukraine in October 2022, overseeing  a major redeployment in the Kherson Region. In January this year, he became a deputy to General Valery Gerasimov, head of the Russian General Staff and current commander of the operation.

** Ukraine’s counteroffensive is ‘suicidal’ – Moscow

Thousands of Ukrainian troops are being sent to their deaths in a “suicidal”counteroffensive that Kiev is using to help keep Western benefactors on board with their massive aid programs, Russia’s top diplomat at the United Nations has claimed.

“Kiev is sending soldiers to be slaughtered only in order to successfully report to Western partners how Ukraine can defeat Russia,” Vasily Nebenzya, Moscow’s permanent representative to the United Nations, said on Friday in a UN Security Council meeting. He added that the counteroffensive is so futile that it’s known as the “Zaporozhye meat grinder” in Ukrainian society.

The campaign, which began earlier this month, has already cost Ukrainian forces tens of thousands of casualties and hundreds of Western-supplied armored vehicles, according to Russia’s UN mission. Western media outlets have suggested that the appetite of Western governments to send more aid to Kiev will depend at least partly on the outcome of the long-delayed counteroffensive.

Even if Ukraine’s backers continue to supply weaponry to facilitate their proxy war against Russia, Kiev doesn’t have an endless supply of troops to send into battle, Russian President Vladimir President said on Thursday. “It seems Ukraine’s Western allies are indeed prepared to wage the war to the last Ukrainian,” he added. 

Nebenzya’s top deputy at the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, warned on Friday that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s regime could stage a false-flag attack on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) to trigger a direct NATO intervention in the conflict. “The whole of Europe may be easily sacrificed by Ze and his blind Russophobic sponsors,” Polyanskiy said on Twitter. “Don’t say we didn’t warn you.”

Nebenzya called on Western governments to block Kiev from organizing such an operation.

The US joined with the UK, France and Albania on Friday in issuing a joint statement demanding that the UN investigate Russia’s alleged use of Iranian drones in Ukraine. A 2015 resolution by the UN Security Council prohibits the transfer of such weapons from Iran.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied allegations of using Ukrainian drones. “We categorically reject it,” Nebenzya told reporters on Friday. “These are baseless allegations and blatant attempts to deliberately mislead the international community.”

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Falling drone fragments trigger fire in Kyiv tower block

Fragments from a downed Russian drone hit a high-rise apartment building and a parking lot in central Kyiv, injuring two people, and missiles targeted the country's second city, Kharkiv, officials said.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people were injured in central Kyiv's Solomyanskyi district and pictures posted on social media showed the top floors of a tower block in flames. Fragments also hit a parking lot.

Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said at least three Russian missiles targeted his city, with one hitting a gas line and triggering a fire. Terekhov said emergency services were at the scene but gave no details on casualties.

There were reports of explosions in other cities, including Dnipro in central Ukraine. Military reports said anti-aircraft units were in action throughout the country.

Air raid alerts were in effect for the entire country for more than an hour before authorities lifted them in most regions.

** Moscow accuses Wagner head of mutiny, he says his forces enter Russia

Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday his Wagner fighters had crossed the border into Russia from Ukraine and were prepared to go "all the way" against Moscow's military, hours after the Kremlin accused him of armed mutiny.

As a long-running standoff between Prigozhin and the military top brass appeared to come to a head, Russia's FSB security service opened a criminal case against him, TASS news agency said. It called on the Wagner private military company forces to ignore his orders and arrest him.

Wagner fighters had entered the southern Russian city of Rostov, Prigozhin said in an audio recording posted on Telegram. He said he and his men would destroy anyone who stood in their way.

Prigozhin earlier said, without providing evidence, that Russia's military leadership had killed a huge number of his troops in an air strike and vowed to punish them.

He said his actions were not a military coup. But in a frenzied series of audio messages, in which the sound of his voice sometimes varied and could not be independently verified, he appeared to suggest that his 25,000-strong militia was en route to oust the leadership of the defence ministry in Moscow.

Security was stepped up on Friday night at government buildings, transport facilities and other key locations in Moscow, TASS reported, citing a source at a security service.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was getting around-the-clock updates, TASS said, while the White House said it was monitoring the situation and would consult with allies.

Kyiv, meanwhile, said the major thrust in its counteroffensive against Moscow's invasion had yet to be launched. "The main blow is still to come," Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar told Ukrainian television.

A top Ukrainian general reported "tangible successes" in advances in the south - one of two main theatres of operations, along with eastern Ukraine.

'OBEY PRESIDENT,' GENERAL SAYS

The deputy commander of Russia's Ukraine campaign, General Sergei Surovikin, told Wagner fighters to obey Putin, accept Moscow's commanders and return to their bases. He said political deterioration would play into the hands of Russia's enemies.

"I urge you to stop," Surovikin said in a video posted on Telegram, his right hand resting on a rifle.

The standoff, many of the details of which remained unclear, looked like the biggest domestic crisis Putin has faced since he sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in February last year.

Prigozhin, a one-time Putin ally, in recent months has carried out an increasingly bitter feud with Moscow. Earlier on Friday, he appeared to cross a new line, saying the Kremlin's rationale for invading Ukraine, which it calls a "special military operation," was based on lies by the army's top brass.

Wagner led Russia's capture of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut last month, Russia's biggest victory in 10 months, and Prigozhin has used his battlefield success to criticise the leadership of the defense ministry with seeming impunity - until now.

For months, he has openly accused Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia's top general, Valery Gerasimov, of incompetence.

Army Lieutenant-General Vladimir Alekseyev issued a video appeal in which he asked Prigozhin to reconsider his actions. "Only the president has the right to appoint the top leadership of the armed forces, and you are trying to encroach on his authority," he said.

UKRAINE SAYS MAJOR THRUST AHEAD

On the ground in Ukraine, at least three people were killed in Russian attacks on Friday, including two who died after a trolleybus company came under fire in the city of Kherson, regional officials said.

Addressing the pace of the Ukrainian advances, several senior officials on Friday sent the clearest signal so far that the main part of the counteroffensive has not yet begun.

"I want to say that our main force has not been engaged in fighting yet, and we are now searching, probing for weak places in the enemy defences. Everything is still ahead," the Guardian quoted Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine's ground forces, as saying in an interview with the British newspaper.

General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukraine's "Tavria," or southern front, wrote on Telegram: "There have been tangible successes of the Defence Forces and in advances in the Tavria sector."

Tarnavskyi said Russian forces had lost hundreds of men and 51 military vehicles in the past 24 hours, including three tanks and 14 armoured personnel carriers.

Although the advances Ukraine has reported this month are its first substantial gains on the battlefield for seven months, Ukrainian forces have yet to push to the main defensive lines that Russia has had months to prepare.

RT/Reuters