Vladimir Putin issues a statement from the Kremlin, Moscow, Russia, August 24, 2023

EA on Times Radio: Putin, Prigozhin, and Trump

Thursday’s Coverage: Has Vladimir Putin Assassinated Wagner Group’s Yevgeny Prigozhin?

Map: Institute for Study of War

UPDATE 1401 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has hosted Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Kyiv, in a discussion of Russia’s renewed blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports and of Zelenskiy’s 10-point proposal to end the Russian invasion.

Fidan is expected to travel to Moscow soon to discuss Vladimir Putin’s shredding of the July 2022 Black Sea deal last month.

UPDATE 1232 GMT:

German prosecutors are investigating the attempted murder by poisoning of Berlin-based Russian journalist Elena Kostyuchenko.

Kostyuchenko, a foreign correspondent who has reported on Russian war crimes in Ukraine, suffered extreme disorientation, abdominal pain, and swollen extremities on a train journey from Munich to Berlin last October.

Two other Russian woman journalists living in exile have experienced poisoning symptoms in the past 10 months. In October, radio journalist Irina Babloyan was stricken in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi. in May, Natalia Arno, president of the US-based Free Russia Foundation, fell ill in Prague in the Czech Republic.

UPDATE 1158 GMT:

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has declared that his boss Vladimir Putin did not assassinate Wagner Group mercenary head Yevgeny Prigozhin and nine other people in a jet crash on Wednesday evening.

Peskov said in a call with reporters:

There is now a great deal of speculation surrounding this plane crash and the tragic deaths of the plane’s passengers, including Yevgeny Prigozhin. Of course, in the west, all this speculation is presented from a well-known angle.

All of this is an absolute lie, and here, when covering this issue, it is necessary to base yourself on facts. There are not many facts yet. They need to be established in the course of investigative actions.

He declared that an investigation is ongoing.

UPDATE 1145 GMT:

The Zelenskiy Government has dismissed the head of Ukraine’s State emergency service after an internal inspection.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko posted the news on Telegram. He gave no reason for the departure and few details about the internal inspection.

Kruk’s deputy Volodymyr Demchuk will be acting head of the service.

UPDATE 1111 GMT:

Finland has detained a Russian citizen, at the request of Ukraine .

Finnish outlets identified the suspect as Jan Petrovsky, who was the commander the far-right paramilitary Rusich group fighting in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine in 2015. He is suspected of participating in acts of terrorism during that time.

Before that, Petrovsky reportedly fought as a volunteer for the Assad regime in its deadly attempt to repress Syria’s mass protests.

The Russian Embassy in Helsinki said it had been informed of the detention and was taking steps to offer consular assistance.

UPDATE 1107 GMT:

The Ukraine Air Force says it downed all four #Russian missiles — two X-59 guided missiles from warships in the Black Sea and two Kalibr cruise missiles — and an Iranian-made Shahed “kamikaze” drone fired overnight.

UPDATE 0739 GMT:

A day after raising the national flag in the village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukrainian forces have advanced further on the southern front of their counter-offensive.

Significantly, troops not only advanced into the south of Robotyne but moved closer to the Russian second line of defense in the area, indicating that they are past the dense minefields that held up progress for weeks.

Geolocated footage showed the counter-offensive nearing Russian lines west of Verbove, 18 km (11.2 miles) southeast of Orikhiv.

Some Russian military observers expressed concern about the “breach” of defensive lines and said this is a “critical moment on the battlefield”.

UPDATE 0551 GMT:

The US has sanctioned 13 individuals and entities involved in the forced deportation and transfer of Ukraine’s children.

Washington is also taking steps to impose visa restrictions on three Russian proxy authorities over their involvement.

“The United States will not stand by as Russia carries out these war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a UN Security council meeting.

Ukrainian officials say they have confirmed the deportations of almost 20,000 children. In March, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Russia’s “Children’s Rights Commissioner” Maria Lvova-Belova over the forced transfers.

UPDATE 0542 GMT:

Russia’s Defense Ministry claims 42 Ukrainian drones were downed over Russian-occupied Crimea early Friday.

The Ministry asserted that nine drones were destroyed by air defenses and 33 suppressed by electronic warfare.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian proxy head of Sevastopol, said some drones was destroyed over the Khersones promontory outside the port city.

The Defence Ministry also declared that a Ukraine-launched missile was intercepted over the Kaluga region, next to the Moscow region.

Russian airports again suspended flights for a few hours.

UPDATE 0534 GMT:

Speaking with US President Joe Biden on Ukraine’s Independence Day, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has expressed gratitude for American assistance.

This crucial leadership enabled our struggle and bent the arc of history toward good. Together, we prove that freedom and independence are worth fighting for. I thank President Biden, the U.S. Congress, and all Americans for this. You can count on Ukraine in protecting our shared values.

Zelenskiy also thanked Justin Trudeau for the Canadian Prime Minister speech at the Crimea Platform summit, where the Ukrainian President assured that the peninsula would be liberated from Russian occupation.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: In his first public statement on Wednesday night’s jet crash which killed Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and nine other people, Vladimir Putin has offered condolences to the families.

Putin did not refer directly to the Wagner Group’s rebellion on June 23-24, which seized the city of Rostov-on-Don — including the headquarters of the Southern Military Command, which oversees the Russian invasion of Ukraine — and quickly advanced to within 200 km (125 miles) of Moscow.

Instead, he made an indirect allusion to the uprising while indicating that Prigozhin had served the Kremlin, including in the invasion, up to that point:

He was a man with a difficult fate, he made some serious mistakes in his life. He achieved the needed results both for himself and for a joint effort that I had asked him about during the last months.

As Western intelligence agencies, analysts, and military observers assessed evidence that pointed to the assassination not only of Prigozhin but of Wagner’s military commander and head of security, Putin promised a full investigation.

Putin said Prigozhin had returned to Russia from Africa on Wednesday and had met with “some officials”.

He did not give details. However, the independent Russian outlet Meduza — citing a “source close to the Moscow region’s leadership” — said that Prigozhin met officials from the Moscow Mayor’s Office and the regional administration on Wednesday to discuss food supplies for public sector institutions.

Two sources said the meeting indicated Prigozhin had “learned nothing” after his rebellion.

A Bomb on A Plane?

Flight tracking data indicated that Prigozhin’s jet, flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg, was downed by a catastrophic event — a missile strike, a bomb, or sudden technical failure.

In 30 seconds, the Brazilian-made Embraer plane fell more than 8,000 feet from its cruising altitude of 28,000 feet, then the transmission of data abruptly ended.

A preliminary US intelligence report assessed that the jet crash was caused intentionally by an explosion, according to US and Western officials.

The officials said the assassination is in line with Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics”.

Others said, “The explosion could have been caused by a bomb or other device planted on the aircraft, though other theories, like adulterated fuel, are also being explored.”

The Pentagon’s Press Secretary, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, indicated that US analysts had ruled out the claim that that the jet was downed by surface-to-air missiles: “We assess that information to be inaccurate.”

Some Russian sources claimed that authorities are investigating the possibility of an explosive device planted on the wing or landing gear. One said that Prigozhin’s personal pilot and the co-founder of MNT Aero, which owned the plan, are being investigation.

Wagner-affiliated channels called on social media pundits to withhold comment until confirmed Wagner sources publish official information.

The Group has not issued a statement on the death of its leader and senior members, although a makeshift memorial has been set up outside its headquarters in St. Petersburg.