A summary of today's developments
Russia on Saturday denied a Ukrainian claim to have recaptured the devastated eastern village of Andriivka, a stepping stone on the way to the town of Bakhmut. “The enemy did not abandon plans to capture the city of Artyomovsk of the Donetsk People’s Republic and continued to conduct assault operations ... unsuccessfully trying to oust Russian troops from the population centres of Klishchiivka and Andriivka,” the Russian defence ministry said in its daily briefing.
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, inspected Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers and hypersonic “Kinzhal” missiles on Saturday, accompanied by Vladimir Putin’s defence minister. Reuters reports a smiling Kim was greeted by Sergei Shoigu in Russia’s Knevichi, about 30 miles (50km) from the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok. Shoigu saluted Kim before the North Korean leader inspected a guard of honour.
North Korea may be able to boost Russia’s supply of artillery munitions for the war in Ukraine, but that is not likely to make a big difference, the top American military officer said as he arrived in Norway for Nato meetings. US Army Gen Mark Milley, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, said the recent meeting in Russia between the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will probably lead North Korea to provide Soviet-era 152mm artillery rounds to Moscow. But he said it was not yet clear how many or how soon, AP reported.
Ukraine will be able to conduct more attacks on Russian ships, a Ukrainian minister who has played a key role in building the country’s drone industry told Reuters after a recent series of sea raids. “There will be more drones, more attacks, and fewer Russian ships. That’s for sure,” the digital transformation minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said in an interview on Friday, answering a question about recent attacks near Crimea.
The EU should earmark more cash to support Ukraine in its revised long-term budget and top up the funds for EU military mobility, Lithuania’s finance minister, Gintarė Skaistė, said.
Russia will probably be able to build a significant stockpile of air-launched cruise missiles and use them to target Ukrainian infrastructure over the coming winter, the UK Ministry of Defence says. In its latest intelligence update, the ministry said air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMs) – particularly the modern AS-23a Kodiak – were at the heart of most of Russia’s long-range strikes against Ukraine’s national energy infrastructure between October 2022 and March 2023.
The US expects to announce additional aid to Ukraine next week, the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said, while announcing that the US president, Joe Biden, would host Volodymyr Zelenskiy next Thursday at the White House. The Ukrainian leader was also expected to meet with congressional leaders from both political parties while he was in Washington, Sullivan said on Friday.
A body has been found in Ukraine in the search for a British man who was reported missing a month ago, PA Media reported. Daniel Burke, 36, from south Manchester, was reported missing on August 16 by family who had not heard from him believing that he had travelled to Ukraine. Officers searching for Burke have been informed by Ukrainian authorities that they have found a body.
Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said on Saturday they planned to sell about 100 Ukrainian properties, including one belonging to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Vladimir Konstantinov, speaker of the Crimean parliament, said the nationalised properties would be sold “soon” and the authorities had held the first eight auctions for the properties of Ukrainian business figures, Reuters reports.
Donald Trump enjoyed hearing that he had drawn praise from the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, the former US president and frontrunner for the 2024 Republican White House nomination has said. Told during a recorded interview with the new NBC Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker that Putin had fawned over his stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Trump replied: “I like that he said that. Because that means what I’m saying is right.”
Poland is set to ban the entry of passenger cars registered in Russia starting on Sunday, state-run Polish news agency PAP has reported. Poland’s interior minister, Mariusz Kaminski, said the ban is a further part of sanctions imposed on Russia and its citizens in connection with the war in Ukraine.
Moscow has dismissed as “politically motivated” the conviction of Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin in a US court for participating in a $93 million insider-trading scheme, the state news agency RIA reported on Saturday. Klyushin, who has ties to the Kremlin, was sentenced on 7 September to nine years in prison after being found guilty in February of trading shares using hacked secret earnings information about multiple companies.
Romanian farmers have asked the government to unilaterally ban the import of Ukrainian grain and other food products after the European Commission decided to lift restrictions.
Romania is one of five eastern EU countries alongside Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia that saw a surge of Ukrainian grain imports after the Russian invasion, which distorted local markets and prompted protests from farmers, leading the EU to approve trade restrictions until 15 September.
Poland, Slovakia and Hungary announced their own unilateral bans on Friday. The Romanian government said it would wait for Ukraine to present its plan to prevent a surge on Monday before deciding how to protect Romanian farmers.
“If a country like Poland, which strongly and thoroughly supports Ukraine against the Russian aggression, has taken such a unilateral decision after the 15 September deadline expired, we don’t understand why Romania would be reserved about doing the same,” the farmers’ association said in a statement.
“Our request in no way affects the transit of Ukrainian farm products through Romania to other destinations, as it is going on at present.”
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Two cargo vessels were bound for Ukrainian ports on Saturday, becoming the first ships to use a temporary corridor to sail into Black Sea ports and load grain for African and Asian markets, deputy prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said.
Ukraine last month announced a “humanitarian corridor” in the Black Sea to release ships trapped in its ports since the start of the war in February 2022 and to circumvent a de facto blockade after Russia abandoned a deal to let Kyiv export grain.
Five vessels have so far left the port of Odesa, using the corridor which hugs the western Black Sea coast near Romania and Bulgaria. Ukraine, a leading global food producer and exporter, also wants to use the corridor for its food exports.
The bulk carriers Resilient Africa and Aroyat were making their way through the Black Sea to Ukrainian ports to load almost 20,000 tons of wheat for Africa and Asia, Kubrakov said. Data from ship tracking company MarineTraffic showed that the Aroyat was already at Ukraine’s Chornomorsk port, while the other vessel was on route in the Black Sea.
Ukraine’s agriculture ministry said on the Telegram messaging app that the wheat would be shipped to Egypt and Israel.
“While the UN is not involved in the movement of those vessels, we welcome all efforts for the resumption of normal trade, especially of vital food commodities that help supply and stabilise global food markets,” a UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.
“We continue our efforts to facilitate exports for agricultural products from both Ukraine and the Russian Federation.”
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The EU should earmark more cash to support Ukraine in its revised long-term budget and top up the funds for EU military mobility, Lithuania’s finance minister, Gintarė Skaistė, said.
As part of a review of the EU’s 2021-27 budget, the European Commission in June proposed €50bn in grants and loans for Ukraine to keep Kyiv financed as it fights off Russian aggression.
This year, the EU will pay out €18bn to Ukraine in highly concessional loans, but, if the proposed €50bn total stays, Ukraine will only get €12.5bn annually from 2024 to 2027.
“If you divide the amount of euros that is in the proposal over four years, the sum will be lower than this year. So our proposal is that maybe we can have the same level as it was in 2023,” Skaiste told Reuters.
“If we have the same level as it was in 2023, it would be €72bn.”
She addedthe EU budget review should also add money for military mobility as the €1.7bn originally allocated for the purpose was insufficient.
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Afternoon summary
The time in Kyiv is just coming up to 6pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s headlines so far:
Russia on Saturday denied a Ukrainian claim to have recaptured the devastated eastern village of Andriivka, a stepping stone on the way to the town of Bakhmut. “The enemy did not abandon plans to capture the city of Artyomovsk of the Donetsk People’s Republic and continued to conduct assault operations ... unsuccessfully trying to oust Russian troops from the population centres of Klishchiivka and Andriivka,” the Russian defence ministry said in its daily briefing.
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, inspected Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers and hypersonic “Kinzhal” missiles on Saturday, accompanied by Vladimir Putin’s defence minister. Reuters reports a smiling Kim was greeted by Sergei Shoigu in Russia’s Knevichi, about 30 miles (50km) from the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok. Shoigu saluted Kim before the North Korean leader inspected a guard of honour.
North Korea may be able to boost Russia’s supply of artillery munitions for the war in Ukraine, but that is not likely to make a big difference, the top American military officer said as he arrived in Norway for Nato meetings. US Army Gen Mark Milley, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, said the recent meeting in Russia between the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will probably lead North Korea to provide Soviet-era 152mm artillery rounds to Moscow. But he said it was not yet clear how many or how soon, AP reported.
Ukraine will be able to conduct more attacks on Russian ships, a Ukrainian minister who has played a key role in building the country’s drone industry told Reuters after a recent series of sea raids. “There will be more drones, more attacks, and fewer Russian ships. That’s for sure,” the digital transformation minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said in an interview on Friday, answering a question about recent attacks near Crimea.
Russia will probably be able to build a significant stockpile of air-launched cruise missiles and use them to target Ukrainian infrastructure over the coming winter, the UK Ministry of Defence says. In its latest intelligence update, the ministry said air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMs) – particularly the modern AS-23a Kodiak – were at the heart of most of Russia’s long-range strikes against Ukraine’s national energy infrastructure between October 2022 and March 2023.
The US expects to announce additional aid to Ukraine next week, the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said, while announcing that the US president, Joe Biden, would host Volodymyr Zelenskiy next Thursday at the White House. The Ukrainian leader was also expected to meet with congressional leaders from both political parties while he was in Washington, Sullivan said on Friday.
A body has been found in Ukraine in the search for a British man who was reported missing a month ago, PA Media reported. Daniel Burke, 36, from south Manchester, was reported missing on August 16 by family who had not heard from him believing that he had travelled to Ukraine. Officers searching for Burke have been informed by Ukrainian authorities that they have found a body.
Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said on Saturday they planned to sell about 100 Ukrainian properties, including one belonging to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Vladimir Konstantinov, speaker of the Crimean parliament, said the nationalised properties would be sold “soon” and the authorities had held the first eight auctions for the properties of Ukrainian business figures, Reuters reports.
Donald Trump enjoyed hearing that he had drawn praise from the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, the former US president and frontrunner for the 2024 Republican White House nomination has said. Told during a recorded interview with the new NBC Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker that Putin had fawned over his stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Trump replied: “I like that he said that. Because that means what I’m saying is right.”
Poland is set to ban the entry of passenger cars registered in Russia starting on Sunday, state-run Polish news agency PAP has reported. Poland’s interior minister, Mariusz Kaminski, said the ban is a further part of sanctions imposed on Russia and its citizens in connection with the war in Ukraine.
Moscow has dismissed as “politically motivated” the conviction of Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin in a US court for participating in a $93 million insider-trading scheme, the state news agency RIA reported on Saturday. Klyushin, who has ties to the Kremlin, was sentenced on 7 September to nine years in prison after being found guilty in February of trading shares using hacked secret earnings information about multiple companies.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. My colleague Nadeem Badshah will be along shortly to continue bringing you the latest news from Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Updated
Donald Trump enjoyed hearing that he had drawn praise from the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, the former US president and frontrunner for the 2024 Republican White House nomination has said.
Told during a recorded interview with the new NBC Meet the Press moderator, Kristen Welker, that Putin had fawned over his stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Trump replied: “I like that he said that. Because that means what I’m saying is right.”
Trump’s remarks to Welker – circulated by NBC on Friday to promote the interview with the ex-president, which is scheduled to air on Sunday morning – drew condemnation from some political quarters.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Republicans against Trump group shared a clip of his comments about Putin to Welker and wrote to its nearly half a million followers: “A vote for Trump is a vote against America.”
Updated
A body has been found in Ukraine in the search for a British man who was reported missing a month ago, PA Media reported.
Daniel Burke, 36, from south Manchester, was reported missing on August 16 by family who had not heard from him believing that he had travelled to Ukraine.
Officers searching for Burke have been informed by Ukrainian authorities that they have found a body.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) are working with Burke’s family and the Ukrainian authorities to support the identification of Burke and bring his body back to the UK.
Burke’s mother Diane told the Manchester Evening News last week that the family had been told by Ukrainian police that officers searched his Zaporizhzhia apartment and found it empty with no signs of a break-in and the door triple locked.
She said the Ukrainian authorities were using CCTV to try to trace his movements on August 11, when he was last seen, and the last time she spoke to him he “sounded on good form”.
North Korea may be able to boost Russia’s supply of artillery munitions for the war in Ukraine, but that is not likely to make a big difference, the top American military officer said as he arrived in Norway for Nato meetings.
US Army Gen Mark Milley, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, said the recent meeting in Russia between the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will probably lead North Korea to provide Soviet-era 152mm artillery rounds to Moscow. But he said it was not yet clear how many or how soon, AP reported.
“Would it have a huge difference? I’m sceptical of that,” Milley told reporters traveling with him. He said that while he does not want to play down the weapons assistance too much, “I doubt that it would be decisive.”
Foreign governments and experts have speculated that Kim will likely supply ammunition to Russia in exchange for receiving advanced weapons or technology from Russia.
Updated
Russia disputes Ukraine's claim about captured territory in Donetsk
Russia on Saturday denied a Ukrainian claim to have recaptured the devastated eastern village of Andriivka, a stepping stone on the way to the town of Bakhmut.
“The enemy did not abandon plans to capture the city of Artyomovsk of the Donetsk People’s Republic and continued to conduct assault operations ... unsuccessfully trying to oust Russian troops from the population centres of Klishchiivka and Andriivka,” the Russian defence ministry said in its daily briefing.
Andriivka lies south of largely-ruined Bakhmut, a mainly symbolic prize that Russian forces seized in May after the fiercest and longest battle since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Ukrainian general staff on Friday also reported “partial success” near Klishchiivka, also south of Bakhmut.
Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports.
Updated
Poland is set to ban the entry of passenger cars registered in Russia starting on Sunday, state-run Polish news agency PAP has reported.
Poland’s interior minister, Mariusz Kaminski, said the ban is a further part of sanctions imposed on Russia and its citizens in connection with the war in Ukraine.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming through from photographers in Ukraine:
In case you missed it, Alexander Lukashenko has expressed interest in creating a trilateral partnership with Russia and North Korea amid rumours that Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un were negotiating an arms deal to sustain Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Belarusian leader made the remarks during a summit with Putin in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, where the two held their seventh face-to-face meeting this year.
“I think that we can think about three-way cooperation,” Lukashenko said. “North Korea, Russia. I know that the Koreans have great interest in you. I think that a piece of work can be found there for Belarus as well. Given the problems that exist.”
Putin and Kim met earlier this week at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s far east. The closely guarded summit was Kim’s first trip outside North Korea in four years.
Ukraine will be able to conduct more attacks on Russian ships, a Ukrainian minister who has played a key role in building the country’s drone industry told Reuters after a recent series of sea raids.
“There will be more drones, more attacks, and fewer Russian ships. That’s for sure,” the digital transformation minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said in an interview on Friday, answering a question about recent attacks near Crimea.
This week, Ukraine has made several attacks using sea drones and missiles on Russia’s Black Sea fleet in and around the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, Reuters reported.
In a sign of growing confidence, Ukraine has recently claimed responsibility for attacks on Crimea, having previously not directly confirmed involvement in blasts at military targets there.
Updated
Moscow has dismissed as “politically motivated” the conviction of Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin in a US court for participating in a $93 million insider-trading scheme, the state news agency RIA reported on Saturday.
Klyushin, who has ties to the Kremlin, was sentenced on 7 September to nine years in prison after being found guilty in February of trading shares using hacked secret earnings information about multiple companies.
Hackers from 2018 to 2020 viewed and downloaded yet-to-be-announced earnings reports for hundreds of companies including Tesla and Microsoft, whose shares Klyushin and others then traded before the news was public, according to prosecutors.
Russia’s foreign ministry said the charges against Klyushin, the owner of a Moscow-based information technology company called M-13 that did work for the Russian government, were completely far-fetched and fabricated”, according to RIA.
It said he was “another victim of the fanatical Russophobia that now reigns in the power structures overseas”.
“We will continue to demand that US authorities put a stop to legal arbitrariness against Russian citizens,” the ministry said, according to RIA.
Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said on Saturday they planned to sell about 100 Ukrainian properties, including one belonging to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Vladimir Konstantinov, speaker of the Crimean parliament, said the nationalised properties would be sold “soon” and the authorities had held the first eight auctions for the properties of Ukrainian business figures, Reuters reports.
The sale contracts amounted to more than 815 million roubles (£6.9m), Konstantinov said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said in February that they had nationalised around 500 properties in Crimea including some belonging to senior Ukrainian politicians and business figures.
Crimea, internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, has been controlled by Moscow since 2014, when Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula, eight years before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Updated
Russia likely boosting capacity to attack Ukrainian energy facilities, says UK MoD
Russia will probably be able to build a significant stockpile of air-launched cruise missiles and use them to target Ukrainian infrastructure over the coming winter, the UK Ministry of Defence says.
In its latest intelligence update, the ministry said air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMs) – particularly the modern AS-23a Kodiak – were at the heart of most of Russia’s long-range strikes against Ukraine’s national energy infrastructure between October 2022 and March 2023.
Russia used strategic bomber aircraft to release those munitions from deep within Russian territory, the ministry said in its update, posted on X.
Open source reports suggest that since April 2023, ALCM expenditure rates have reduced, while Russian leaders have highlighted efforts to increase the rate of cruise missile production.
Russia is therefore likely able to generate a significant stockpile of ALCMs. There is a realistic possibility Russia will again focus these weapons against Ukrainian infrastructure targets over the winter.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 16 September 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) September 16, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/RCMaSd0fe1
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/BOstAXCzTy
Updated
The US expects to announce additional aid to Ukraine next week, the national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said, while announcing that the US president, Joe Biden, would host Volodymyr Zelenskiy next Thursday at the White House.
The Ukrainian leader was also expected to meet with congressional leaders from both political parties while he was in Washington, Sullivan said on Friday.
Reuters, citing three US officials, has reported that the US is considering shipping army tactical missile systems (ATACMS) that can fly up to 190 miles (300km) or guided multiple launch rocket system (GMLRS) missiles with a 45-mile range packed with cluster bombs, or both systems.
Kyiv has repeatedly asked the Biden administration for ATACMS to help attack and disrupt supply lines, air bases and rail networks in Russian occupied territory.
But a source familiar with the situation said the US did not plan to announce ATACMS for Ukraine during Zelenskiy’s visit to the White House next week.
Updated
Kim Jong-un inspects Russian nuclear-capable bombers after meeting Sergei Shoigu
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, inspected Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers and hypersonic “Kinzhal” missiles on Saturday, accompanied by Vladimir Putin’s defence minister.
Reuters reports a smiling Kim was greeted by Sergei Shoigu in Russia’s Knevichi, about 30 miles (50km) from the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok. Shoigu saluted Kim before the North Korean leader inspected a guard of honour.
Shoigu then showed Kim Russia’s strategic bombers – the Tu-160, Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 – which are capable of carrying nuclear weapons and form the backbone of Russia’s nuclear air attack force.
Shoigu told Kim of one of the aircraft:
It can fly from Moscow to Japan and then back again.
Kim was shown asking about how the missiles were fired from the aircraft. A Russian official told him the strategic bombers were one of the key parts of Russia’s nuclear forces.
Kim on Friday inspected a Russian fighter jet factory that is under western sanctions, part of a visit Washington and its allies fear could strengthen Russia’s military in Ukraine and bolster Pyongyang’s missile program.
The Kremlin said no agreements had been signed during Kim’s visit.
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Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to our rolling coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Adam Fulton and here’s an overview of the latest.
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, inspected Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers and hypersonic missiles on Saturday, accompanied by the Russian defence minister.
Sergei Shoigu greeted Kim near the Russian city of Vladivostok and then showed him the strategic bombers that form the backbone of Russia’s nuclear air attack force.
Kim’s rare trip abroad has fanned fears that Moscow and Pyongyang will strike an arms deal in defiance of sanctions – concerns the Kremlin has denied.
More on that story shortly. In other news:
The Ukrainian military says it has seized the village of Andriivka in the partially occupied Donetsk region. The battle around Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine caused Russian forces “significant losses in manpower and equipment”, the Ukrainian armed forces’ general staff said on Facebook. It also had “partial success in the area of Klishchiivka”, it said, while Russian forces were continuing to try to break through Ukrainian defences in the Bohdanivka area.
A Russian drone attack in western Ukraine was an attempt to target warplanes used this week to attack Russian-occupied Crimea, Ukrainian air force colonel Yuriy Ihnat has said. Russia fired 17 drones overnight on Thursday at the central Khmelnytskyi region that is home to the Starokostiantyniv airbase, Ukraine’s air force said. Debris damaged 12 homes and shattered windows in a school but no one was hurt, regional official Serhiy Tiurin said.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy will visit Washington next week and meet the US president, Joe Biden, the White House confirmed on Friday. The Ukrainian president will also hold meetings at the US Congress as it debates providing as much as $21bn in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. Zelenskiy’s second wartime trip to Washington will come after meetings with other world leaders at the UN general assembly in New York.
A Ukrainian sea drone damaged the “Samum” small Russian missile ship in an attack at the entrance to occupied Crimea’s Sevastopol Bay and the vessel had to be towed away for repairs, a Ukrainian intelligence source said on Friday. Russia’s defence ministry said the previous day that it repelled an attack on the Samum in the Black Sea, during which it destroyed a naval drone.
The European Union said on Friday it was ending an import ban on Ukrainian grain in five member states but Poland, Hungary and Slovakia immediately announced they would defy the move. The EU’s decision had been taken after Kyiv agreed to introduce measures such as an export licensing system within 30 days to “avoid grain surges”, the European Commission said.
Tens of thousands of Jewish pilgrims gathered in the Ukrainian city of Uman on Friday to mark the Rosh Hashanah religious festival, despite warnings not to travel due to Russia’s invasion. Security was tightened ahead of this year’s gathering, as Ukrainian officials urged pilgrims to follow warnings. “At present, about 32,000 pilgrims have already arrived in Uman,” said Iryna Rybnytska from the Historical Cultural Centre of Uman.
A Ukrainian court has ordered a former government minister to be detained for 60 days with no option of bail on suspicion of espousing pro-Russia sentiments and committing treason. Nestor Shufrych is accused of maintaining contacts with a fugitive Ukrainian parliamentarian suspected by investigators to have worked for Russian security services and of abetting plans to encourage pro-Moscow separatism in eastern Ukraine. “This is what the authorities need,” Shufrych said in a video issued by Public Suspilne Television as court officials led him away on Friday.
A leading Russian general has resurfaced in Algeria after disappearing from public view following the Wagner mercenary group’s attempted mutiny in June. Nicknamed “Gen Armageddon”, Sergei Surovikin was removed from his post as commander of Russia’s aerospace force in August, two months after the mercenary group sought to topple Russia’s military command.
Satellite images appear to show the dismantling of a Wagner militia base south-east of the Belarusian capital, Minsk. The images of activity in recent weeks showed tents being taken down at the Tsel military base in Mogilev region, and may indicate the winding down of the Russian mercenary company’s presence in the country after the brief mutiny in Russia.
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