President Volodymyr Zelenskiy with commanders on the frontline in southern Ukraine, June 26, 2023

EA on Times Radio and Australia’s ABC: Putin’s War at Home

Monday’s Coverage: The Kremlin Cracks

Map: Institute for Study of War

UPDATE 1655 GMT:

The Zelenskiy Government has reprimanded Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and fired four heads of city districts, following the June 1 deaths of three women outside a locked bomb shelter.

The women, including a mother and daughter, were killed by debris from a downed Russian drone.

A subsequent comprehensive review found that more than a quarter of shelters across the country were closed or unusable.

UPDATE 1609 GMT:

Russian shelling has killed an elderly woman in Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region, near the frontline of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in southern Ukraine.

UPDATE 1548 GMT:

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has confirmed that Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has arrived in the country: “I see that Prigozhin was already flying on this plane. Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today.”

Lukashenko said he has offered the mercenaries an abandoned military base: “If their commanders come to us and help us…[and] tell us what’s important right now … That’s priceless. That’s what we need to take from Wagner.”

He assured that “we will keep a close eye” on the mercenaries.

Speaking to Belarusian security personnel and officials, Lukashenko said Prigozhin was a “heroic guy” shaken by the deaths of many of his men in Ukraine.

UPDATE 1540 GMT:

Trying to portray his close relationship with the group — even though it was technically forbidden and not recognized until summer 2022 — Vladimir Putin said the Russian State entirely financed Wagner between May 2022 and May 2023.

In his meeting with security forces, Putin said the State supported the mercenaries with 86 billion roubles ($1 billion) over the year.

Putin added that Wagner leader Prigozhin made almost as much money during the same period from his food and catering business.

UPDATE 1034 GMT:

Vladimir Putin is delivering his second address in less than 16 hours, speaking outside the Kremlin in front of Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu and the heads of security services.

He hails Russia’s military and law enforcement for “stopping a civil war”, and declares that “the people and the army were not on the side of the mutineers” of the Wagner Group.

Then he announces a minute of silence for the 13 army pilots that Wagner shot down and killed.

UPDATE 1000 GMT:

Vladimir Putin spoke with Iran President Ebrahim Raisi on Monday.

Raisi’s office says the men discussed economic and transport cooperation, including their proposed “South-North Corridor” in Asia. They spoke about “actions of extra-regional forces in the Caucasus” as “a threat to all countries in the region”.

Putin also “reported on the recent armed rebellion in the country”, proclaiming, “Russia acted with strength against this rebellion.”

The Kremlin said Raisi “expressed full support for the Russian leadership in connection with the June 24 events”.

UPDATE 0906 GMT:

The UN monitoring mission in Ukraine says Russian forces have detained more than 800 civilians, executing 77, on Ukrainian and Russian territory since February 2022.

We have identified patterns of conduct which have resulted in arbitrary detention, as well as further human rights violations including torture, ill treatment, and enforced disappearances.

The head of the UN human rights office in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, added, “Torture was used to force victims to confess to helping Ukrainian armed forces, compel them to cooperate with the occupying authorities, or intimidate those with pro-Ukrainian views.”

While there are cases of Ukraine arbitrarily detaining civilians, “there was greater prevalence of conduct attributed to forces of the Russian Federation”, the report summarized.

Bogner said Ukraine gave UN investigators “unimpeded confidential access” to detainees, except for a group of 87 Russian sailors. However, “The Russian Federation did not grant us such access, despite our requests,” she explained.

UPDATE 0710 GMT:

The business jet of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin landed at the Machulishchy military airfield near Belarus capital Minsk this morning, reports the monitor Belaruski Hayun.

The plane departed from Russia’s Rostov region, where Wagner seized territory in its rebellion on Friday and Saturday.

Russian State media reports that the State security service FSB has closed the criminal cases of all Wagner fighters as they stopped their actions aimed at committing a rebellion”.

The Defense Ministry claims the mercenaries are preparing to hand over their heavy military equipment and armored hardware.

UPDATE 0651 GMT:

Local officials in southern Ukraine have confirmed the killing of two teenagers, Tihran Ohannisian and Mykyta Khanhanov, by Russian forces.

The officials asked for restraint in comments about the killings: “Their relatives are still in the temporarily occupied territory, and premature statements may harm their safety and pose a threat to their lives.”

Russian authorities declared the “liquidation of two pro-Ukrainian terrorists”.

Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, said Kyiv has appealed to the Red Cross for Russia’s handover of the bodies: “But their answer is always the same – the Russian side didn’t let us in, so we couldn’t fulfill our mandate.”

Lubinets added:

This country behaves like a terrorist, does not pay attention to any international conventions, international humanitarian law. They once again showed that they can kill two Ukrainian children and pretend that they will get away with it.

Ohannisian, 16, and Khanhanov were abducted in September. They were accused of “terrorism” and faced 20 years in prison.

In his last video, Ohannisian said, “That’s all guys, it’s death. Goodbye. Glory to Ukraine.” The clip then ended abruptly.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Visiting the frontline of Ukraine’s counter-offensive against Russian invaders, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has praised troops for “progress in all directions”.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin struggled to regain his authority on Monday after the mini-rebellion by Wagner Group mercenaries last weekend. In a brief speech — his first since a deal to end the rebellion before it reached the outskirts of Moscow — Putin tried to split Wagner’s fighters from their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Zelenskiy travelled to Ukrainian positions in the east and the south of the country, covering hundreds of kilometers. He met commanders in the Donetsk region on the eastern front; near the Russian-occupied port city of Berdyansk in the south; and in another location on the southern front.

The President thanked troops for their defense of Ukraine with “freedom for each and every one of us”.

“Take care of yourselves. If you save your lives, you will save Ukraine,” he told the soldiers.

Later, in his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskiy said, “Today in all sectors, our soldiers made advances. It is a happy day. I wished the guys more days like this.”

Over the weekend, the two-week counter-offensive liberated areas near the city of Krasnohorivka in the Donetsk region on the eastern front. On Monday, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said Ukrainian forces cleared a Russian bridgehead across the Siverskyi-Donets Donbas canal near Bakhmut.

On the southern front, troops regained Rivnopil, west of the other eight villages recaptured earlier this month near the border of the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.

Earlier on Monday, Deputy Defense Secretary Hann Maliar said Ukrainian forces had liberated about 130 square km (50 square miles) in the south.

Putin’s Brief Appearance

Amid speculation over his whereabouts after the mini-rebellion — and pressure from politicians and commentators to revoke his amnesty deal with the Wagner Group’s Prigozhin — Putin delivered a 5 1/2-minute speech on Monday night.

Referring to “colossal threats” facing Russia, he did not mention Wagner head Yevgeny Progozhin by name. However, he said organizers of rebellion had betrayed the Russian people and were “doomed to fail”.

He justified the deal permitting Prigozhin to go to Belarus and guaranteeing no consequences for Wagner’s men:

I made steps to avoid large bloodshed. This needed time including letting those who made a mistake change their mind and see the consequences this will lead to.

Then he tried to split the mercenaries from their leader: “The majority of Wagner commanders and fighters are patriots. They were used covertly against their brothers-in-arms.”

He thanked the fighters for making the “right decision” in refusing to engage in fratricide and offered them a choice: sign contracts with the Defense Ministry, go to Belarus, or retire and go home.

Putin decided to speak after Prigozhin broke his post-rebellion silence. The Wagner head said the operation showed that there were “serious problems with security on the whole territory” of Russia.

Prigozhin said his men captured Rostov-on-Don and marched on Moscow because they had been targeted with artillery fire by Russian conventional units in Ukraine — the “trigger for us to move out immediately” — and because of Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu’s decree that all combatants sign contracts with the Ministry.

He asserted, “The goal of the march was to not allow the destruction of the Wagner private military company and hold to account the officials who through their unprofessional actions have committed a massive number of errors. Society demanded it.”