Closing summary
The time in Kyiv is almost 9pm. Here is a roundup of today’s headlines:
The Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin flew into exile in Belarus on his private jet on Tuesday, as Moscow claimed the paramilitary force had agreed to hand over its weapons after the group’s failed insurrection. “Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today,” the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, said in comments first reported by Belta, the country’s national news agency.
Lukashenko, said on Tuesday that he had convinced Prigozhin in an emotional, expletive-laden phone call to end a mutiny by his Wagner militia that has jolted Russia. Under a deal brokered by Lukashenko, an old friend, Prigozhin abandoned what he called a “march for justice” by thousands of his men on Moscow, in exchange for safe passage to exile in Belarus.
The Wagner mercenary group was entirely financed by the Russian state, which spent 86bn roubles ($1bn) on it between May 2022 and May 2023, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said. In addition, Prigozhin, who led the group’s brief mutiny on Saturday, made almost as much during the same period from his food and catering business, Putin said at a meeting with security forces.
Lukashenko on Tuesday told his defence minister that Wagner soldiers could provide Belarus with “priceless” information about warfare. “If their commanders come to us and help us … They will tell us about weapons: which worked well, and which did not. And tactics … how to attack, how to defend … This is what we can get from Wagner,” he said.
The movement of Wagner group troops to Belarus is a negative signal for Poland, president Andrzej Duda said on Tuesday, as he headed for talks with other Nato leaders in the Netherlands. “We see what is happening, the relocation of Russian forces in the form of the Wagner group to Belarus, and the head of the Wagner group going there, those are all very negative signals for us which we want to raise strongly with our allies,” he told reporters.
Lukashenko says he has offered the Wagner group an abandoned military base in the country. While Belarus is not yet building camps for the mercenary group, it will accommodate them if they require it, he said.
Latvia and Lithuania called on Tuesday for Nato to strengthen its eastern borders in response to expectations that Wagner mercenaries would set up a new base in Belarus.
The aborted mutiny in Russia would not affect efforts by African leaders to seek an end to the war in Ukraine, South Africa’s foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, said on Tuesday after holding talks with her visiting German counterpart. The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said Saturday’s mutiny showed Putin was destroying his own country, Reuters reported.
Putin on Tuesday told members of Russia’s security services that they “essentially prevented a civil war” by acting “clearly and coherently” during Prigozhin’s armed mutiny on Saturday. “The people and the army were not on the side of the mutineers,” Putin said, speaking outside the Kremlin in front of the heads of Russia’s main domestic security service, including the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, whom Prigozhin had sought to oust with his uprising.
The US will provide Kyiv with a new military package worth up to $500m, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, in a show of support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia as Moscow deals with the aftermath of the mutiny. The package will include ground vehicles including Bradley fighting vehicles and Stryker armoured personnel carriers, and munitions for high mobility artillery rocket systems, the Pentagon said in a statement.
Putin’s recent flare of public statements indicates that he is eager to project a sense of unity, after the biggest crisis in his 23 years in power, says Prof Sam Greene, director of the Russia Institute at King’s College London. “Putin is hoping – through a series of set-piece events, like last night’s security meeting and today’s address on Cathedral Square, to rewrite the narrative of Prigozhin’s putsch as one of consolidation and consensus,” Greene said in a tweet.
Russian forces have carried out widespread and systematic torture of civilians detained in connection with its attack on Ukraine, summarily executing more than 70 of them, the UN human rights office said on Tuesday. The global body interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses for a report detailing more than 900 cases of civilians, including children and elderly people, being arbitrarily detained in the conflict, most of them by Russia.
Ukraine’s government reprimanded Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv’s mayor, on Tuesday as city officials faced criticism over the state of bomb shelters after the deaths of three people locked out on the street during a Russian air raid. The government said it had also approved the dismissal of the heads of two Kyiv districts and two acting heads of districts, Reuters reported. It was not immediately clear whether Klitschko, a former boxer, would face any further action.
Russia’s national guard will be equipped with heavy weaponry and tanks, the RIA news agency has quoted its head, Viktor Zolotov, as saying on Tuesday, after units of the guard came close to having to defend Moscow against heavily armed mutineers. Zolotov also said the Wagner mercenaries who carried out the short-lived weekend mutiny would not have been able to take Moscow if they had reached the Russian capital, the Tass news agency reported.
Explosions were heard in Kremenchuk after a Russian airstrike on Tuesday, according to media reports, exactly one year later a Russian rocket hit a crowded shopping centre in the city, killing at least 21 civilians. “Explosions were heard in Kremenchuk,” said the air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat. “We are waiting to hear from regional administrations about the implications of the explosions.”
Russia and China’s foreign ministries held a round of consultations on anti-missile defence, the Russian foreign ministry said. “A thorough exchange of views took place on various aspects of this issue, including its global and regional dimensions,” the ministry said in a statement on its website.
Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned Russian opposition leader, is “ready to continue to fight” for an alternative to Putin, despite being in solitary confinement and facing new charges that could put him in jail for decades, his friends and supporters have said. Launching a campaign in front of the European parliament on Tuesday, Maria Pevchikh, a Russian journalist and CEO of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, said he had been locked up in “punishment cell” for 180 days on fake charges, including not washing his teeth at the correct time.
The Italian cardinal Matteo Zuppi, tasked by Pope Francis to carry out a peace mission to try to help end the war in Ukraine, will visit Moscow this week as a followup to his trip to Kyiv, the Vatican said on Tuesday. A statement said Zuppi would be in the Russian capital on Wednesday and Thursday.
That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the Ukraine live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
Updated
Russia and China’s foreign ministries on Tuesday held a round of consultations on anti-missile defence, the Russian foreign ministry said.
“A thorough exchange of views took place on various aspects of this issue, including its global and regional dimensions,” the ministry said in a statement on its website.
“The intention was reaffirmed to hold such consultations on a regular basis in the future.”
Since invading Ukraine in February 2022 in what it calls a “special military operation”, Russia has increasingly courted China for trade and diplomatic support, Reuters reported.
China has not condemned the invasion, and Washington and other Western allies said earlier this year that China was considering providing weapons to Russia, something Beijing denies.
The Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin flew into exile in Belarus on his private jet on Tuesday, as Moscow claimed the paramilitary force had agreed to hand over its weapons after the group’s failed insurrection.
“Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today,” the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, said in comments first reported by Belta, the country’s national news agency.
Prigozhin, a 62-year-old former convict who rose to become Russia’s most powerful mercenary, was last seen in public when he left Rostov-on-Don on Saturday, a major city in southern Russia which his troops briefly occupied.
US to give Ukraine $500m in additional military aid
The United States will provide Kyiv with a new military package worth up to $500m, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, in a show of support for Ukraine’s fight against Russia as Moscow deals with the aftermath of a mutiny by mercenary fighters.
The package will include ground vehicles including Bradley fighting vehicles and Stryker armored personnel carriers, and munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, the Pentagon said in a statement.
After the mayhem, the messaging.
In the aftermath of the weekend’s aborted Wagner uprising, Vladimir Putin and his obedient media networks are trying to craft a narrative of the unrest that paints the Russian president and the system he presides over in the best possible light.
“As Vladimir Putin said a few minutes ago … a civil war has been prevented in Russia,” a news anchor intoned sternly at the top of the bulletin on Tuesday afternoon.
Shortly before, Putin had addressed more than 2,000 law enforcement and military figures assembled in a square inside the Kremlin walls, thanking them for their service.
“You have defended the constitutional order, the lives, security and freedom of our citizens. You have saved our Motherland from upheaval. In fact, you have stopped a civil war,” he told them.
Even for Putin’s usually nimble propagandists, painting the shocking events of the weekend as a win for the Kremlin is proving a hard sell. At the same time as claiming the country was on the brink of civil war, Putin and the state television networks have insisted that the uprising enjoyed no real support and was always doomed to failure.
Ukraine’s government reprimanded Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv’s mayor, on Tuesday as city officials faced criticism over the state of bomb shelters following the deaths of three people locked out on the street during a Russian air raid.
The government said it had also approved the dismissal of the heads of two Kyiv districts and two acting heads of districts, Reuters reported.
It was not immediately clear whether Klitschko, a former boxer, would face any further action.
Uncertainty about his political future grew after President Zelenskiy criticised officials in the capital over the 1 June incident, in which two women and a girl were killed by falling debris after rushing to a shelter and finding it shut.
Zelenskiy also ordered an audit of all of the city’s bomb shelters after the incident, and said personnel changes would be made.
Updated
The movement of Wagner group troops to Belarus is a negative signal for Poland, president Andrzej Duda said on Tuesday, as he headed for talks with other Nato leaders in the Netherlands.
“We see what is happening, the relocation of Russian forces in the form of the Wagner group to Belarus, and the head of the Wagner group going there, those are all very negative signals for us which we want to raise stongly with our allies,” he told reporters.
President Putin addressing members of Russia’s security services.
The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, said on Tuesday that he had convinced Yevgeny Prigozhin in an emotional, expletive-laden phone call to end a mutiny by his Wagner militia that has jolted Russia.
Under a deal brokered by Lukashenko, an old friend, Prigozhin abandoned what he called a “march for justice” by thousands of his men on Moscow, in exchange for safe passage to exile in Belarus.
His men, who have spearheaded much of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, were also pardoned and have been given the choice of joining Prigozhin in Belarus, being integrated into Russia’s security forces, or simply going home.
Lukashenko, recounting his role in Saturday’s drama to Belarusian officers and officials, hailed Prigozhin as a “heroic guy” who had been shaken by the deaths of many of his men in Ukraine.
Updated
Vladimir Putin has appeared outside at the Kremlin to tell members of Russia’s security services that they “prevented a civil war” during Yevgeny Prigozhin’s armed mutiny.
Russia’s main domestic security services and the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, whom Prigozhin had sought to oust with his uprising, were in the audience gathered in the Kremlin’s Cathedral Square for Putin’s speech.
Updated
Latvia and Lithuania called on Tuesday for Nato to strengthen its eastern borders in response to expectations that Russia’s Wagner mercenaries would set up a new base in Belarus after its abortive mutiny at home.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin arrived in Belarus on Tuesday under a deal negotiated by president Alexander Lukashenko that ended the mercenaries’ mutiny in Russia on Saturday. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wagner’s fighters would be offered the choice of relocating there.
“This move needs to be assessed from a different security point of view. We have seen the capabilities of those mercenaries,” Latvian foreign minister Edgars Rinkēvičs told reporters during a visit to Paris with Baltic counterparts.
The Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said the speed with which Wagner had advanced on Moscow, driving hundreds of miles in a one-day race towards the capital, showed that the defence of Baltic states should be firmed up.
Updated
Russian forces have carried out widespread and systematic torture of civilians detained in connection with its attack on Ukraine, summarily executing more than 70 of them, the UN human rights office said on Tuesday.
The global body interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses for a report detailing more than 900 cases of civilians, including children and elderly people, being arbitrarily detained in the conflict, most of them by Russia.
The vast majority of those interviewed said they were tortured and in some cases subjected to sexual violence during detention by Russian forces, the head of the UN human rights office in Ukraine said.
The 36-page report came as Beth Van Schaack, the US ambassador-at-large for Global Criminal Justice, said Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, had implicated Vladimir Putin in war crimes by admitting the original invasion was not justified by any provocative actions by Ukraine.
It was a dramatic 24 hours in Russia, when the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, mutinied, turning his forces back toward Russia in what he described as a “march for justice”.
The organisation has been one of the most effective parts of Vladimir Putin’s fighting machine in Ukraine, but a feud between Prigozhin and senior Russian generals had been simmering for months over the Kremlin’s leadership of the invasion and occupation of Ukraine.
Updated
Wagner group offered abandoned military base in Belarus, Lukashenko says
The Belarusian president, Aleksander Lukashenko says he has offered the Wagner group an abandoned military base in the country.
While Belarus is not yet building camps for the mercenary group, it will accommodate them if they require it, he said.
The Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin flew to Belarus from Russia on Tuesday after a mutiny that has dealt the biggest blow to President Vladimir Putin’s authority since he came to power more than 23 years ago.
Putin initially vowed to crush the mutiny, comparing it to the wartime turmoil that ushered in the revolution of 1917 and then a civil war, but hours later a deal was clinched to allow Prigozhin and some of his fighters to go to Belarus.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that an older resident of Orikhiv, in Zaporizhzhia region, has been killed by artillery fire.
Updated
Lukashenko confirms that Prigozhin has arrived in Belarus
Alexander Lukashenko appears to have confirmed that the Wagner founder, Yevgeney Prigozhin, has landed in Belarus.
On its Telegram channel the Belta news agency quotes the Belarusian leader saying:
Security guarantees, as he promised yesterday, were provided. I see that Prigozhin was already flying on this plane. Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today.
There were earlier reports that a plane linked to the Wagner leader had landed near Minsk. The Kremlin said earlier it did not know of Prigozhin’s whereabouts. Russia’s security services have dropped any investigation into the weekend’s armed mutiny.
Updated
The head of the UN human rights office in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, has spoken about their latest report into human rights abuses in Ukraine, accusing both sides of torture and mistreatment of prisoners.
The report claims that Russian forces carried out widespread and systematic torture of civilians who were detained in connection with its attack on Ukraine, summarily executing dozens of them, and also documents 75 cases of arbitrary detention by Ukrainian security forces, saying a significant proportion of these amounted to enforced disappearances.
The global body interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses for a report detailing more than 900 cases of civilians, including children and elderly people, being arbitrarily detained in the conflict, most of them by Russia. The vast majority of those interviewed said they were tortured and in some cases subjected to sexual violence during detention by Russian forces.
Bogner said: “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,” AP reports.
Bogner said Ukraine gave UN investigators “unimpeded confidential access” to detainees at official detention centres, with the exception of a group of 87 Russian sailors, adding: “The Russian Federation did not grant us such access, despite our requests.”
Updated
It was noted earlier on social media this morning that a Russian special plane had left Moscow en route for Washington, prompting some speculation as to why.
Tass is now reporting that Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry press spokesperson, has claimed it is for the rotation of diplomatic staff. It writes:
The plane flying to Washington will take out Russian diplomats who are ordered to leave the US in connection with the completion of a three-year stay, Zakharova said.
Russian diplomats are leaving the US not because of expulsion, but because of restrictions imposed by Washington on the work of Russian foreign missions.
As you might imagine, some people on social media are criticising the apparent hypocrisy in Russian authorities sending people to jail for voicing opposition to the invasion of Ukraine, while today the FSB has shut down any criminal investigation into the Wagner mutiny at the weekend, which took the lives of some Russian service personnel.
Here is one such effort from the satirical @Sputnik_Not account.
Putin says Prigozhin was not arrested because capturing a city, shooting down helicopters and threatening to hang the defence minister is not as bad as holding up a blank piece of paper pic.twitter.com/aDRUJ8MxEx
— Sputnik (@Sputnik_Not) June 27, 2023
Here are some of the images from Moscow earlier as President Vladimir Putin addressed the military.
Updated
The Wagner mercenary group was entirely financed by the Russian state, which spent 86bn roubles ($1bn) on it between May 2022 and May 2023, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said.
In addition, Wagner’s head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led the group’s brief mutiny on Saturday, made almost as much during the same period from his food and catering business, Putin said at a meeting with security forces.
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Wagner soldiers can offer Belarus 'priceless' information on warfare, Lukashenko says
The Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, on Tuesday told his defence minister that Wagner soldiers could provide Belarus with “priceless” information about warfare.
“If their commanders come to us and help us … They will tell us about weapons: which worked well, and which did not. And tactics … how to attack, how to defend … This is what we can get from Wagner,” Lukashenko said.
Vladimir Putin said in an unscheduled address to Russians on Monday evening, that the Wagner group would be shut down and its fighters had the choice to sign a contract with the ministry of defence or relocate to Belarus.
Lukashenko said that Belarus should not be afraid of Wagner because his country would keep a close watch on the group.
Updated
An aborted mutiny in Russia will not affect efforts by African leaders to seek an end to the war in Ukraine, South Africa’s foreign minister Naledi Pandor said on Tuesday after holding talks with her visiting German counterpart.
The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said Saturday’s mutiny by Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin showed Vladimir Putin was destroying his own country, Reuters reported.
Baerbock’s visit to South Africa came after the president, Cyril Ramaphosa, and other African leaders visited Russia and Ukraine on a peace mission this month.
South Africa has said it is non-aligned in Russia’s war in Ukraine. It has faced criticism from western powers for maintaining close ties to Russia, a historic ally.
Before the visit, Baerbock had said that she wanted to hear South Africa’s view on the “dramatic developments” in Russia and discuss how South Africa can use its weight as an African opinion leader to help end the Ukraine conflict.
Updated
Putin’s recent flare of public statements indicates that the Russian leader is eager to project a sense of unity, after the biggest crisis in his 23 years in power, says Prof Sam Greene, director of the Russia Institute at King’s College London.
“Putin is hoping – through a series of set-piece events, like last night’s security meeting and today’s address on Cathedral Square – to rewrite the narrative of Prigozhin’s putsch as one of consolidation and consensus,” Greene said in a tweet
“The greatest threat to Putin at this point comes not from Prigozhin, but from the potential that these events break the hermetic seal on the public consensus that there is no alternative to Putin,” Greene added.
Updated
Russia’s national guard will be equipped with heavy weaponry and tanks, the RIA news agency has quoted its head, Viktor Zolotov, as saying on Tuesday, after units of the guard came close to having to defend Moscow against heavily armed mutineers.
Zolotov also said the Wagner mercenaries who carried out the short-lived weekend mutiny would not have been able to take Moscow if they had reached the Russian capital, the Tass news agency reported.
Updated
The Italian cardinal Matteo Zuppi, tasked by Pope Francis to carry out a peace mission to try to help end the war in Ukraine, will visit Moscow this week as a follow-up to his trip to Kyiv, the Vatican said on Tuesday.
A statement said Zuppi would be in the Russian capital on Wednesday and Thursday.
“The main purpose of the initiative is to encourage gestures of humanity, which can contribute to facilitating a solution to the current tragic situation and find ways to achieve a just peace,” it said.
It was not clear who Zuppi would meet in Moscow. He met religious leaders as well as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on 6 June.
Updated
Alexei Navalny, the imprisoned Russian opposition leader, is “ready to continue to fight” for an alternative to Putin despite being in solitary confinement and facing new charges that could see him in jail for decades, his friends and supporters have said.
Launching a campaign in front of the European parliament on Tuesday, Maria Pevchikh, a Russian journalist and CEO of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, said he had been locked up in “punishment cell” for 180 days on fake charges including not washing his teeth at the correct time.
She said he was chained for part of day, was only allowed paper and pen for 30 minute in the day and had not seen his family for more than a year.
His family were not allowed to see him at his new trial which she says is based on jumped up charges. “They are going to add another 20 years perhaps to the nine and a half years that he has already in prison. And that’s that’s not even it. There will be another trial after that,” she says.
“We believe that the only way to ensure that Alexei is in the relative safety that his life is protected is just to keep talking about him to keep it steady right spotlight on his name and just to constantly try to increase the cost of his life.”
His friend and lawyer, the German MEP Sergey Lagodinsky, said he had spoken to his family and they reported his “spirit is unbroken” and he is “ready to fight and continue to fight for democracy”.
The MEP Guy Verhofstadt said the replica prison cell placed in front of the parliament was “a symbol of hope” because it meant an alternative to Putin still existed.
Updated
Explosions heard in Kremenchuk a year on from Russian rocket strike on shopping centre
Explosions were heard in Kremenchuk after a Russian airstrike on Tuesday, according to media reports, exactly one year later a Russian rocket hit a crowded shopping centre in the city, killing at least 21 civilians.
“Explosions were heard in Kremenchuk,” said the air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat. “We are waiting to hear from regional administrations about the implications of the explosions.”
According to sources, on Tuesday the Russians launched a series of missiles in the outskirts of the city.
On 27 June 2022, world leaders condemned Russia’s deadly strike on the shopping centre in Kremenchuk as “abominable” and a war crime.
Authorities estimated there were between 200 and 1,000 people inside at the time of the attack. Many managed to flee to a nearby bomb shelter when they heard the air raid sirens.
Others did not make it in time and remained trapped inside.
Updated
Putin tells members of Russia's security services they 'prevented a civil war' by stopping the Wagner mutiny
Vladimir Putin on Tuesday told members of Russia’s security services that they “essentially prevented a civil war” by acting “clearly and coherently” during Yevgeny Prigozhin’s armed mutiny on Saturday.
“The people and the army were not on the side of the mutineers,” Putin said, speaking outside the Kremlin in front of the heads of Russia’s main domestic security service, including the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, whom Prigozhin had sought to oust with his uprising.
The Russian president then announced a minute of silence for the army pilots that Wagner shot down and killed during their uprising.
There has been no official information about how many pilots died or how many aircraft were shot down during Wagner’s rebellion but some pro-military bloggers reported that at least 13 pilots were killed during the mutiny.
Updated
Putin: army and people were not on the side of Wagner rebels
Vladimir Putin is giving another speech this morning and has begun by hailing Russia’s military and law enforcement for “stopping a civil war”.
He says the army and people were not on the side of the “mutineers”, referring to the mutinous Wagner group.
The speech is being attended by the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and military officers, who have gathered in a square inside the Kremlin complex.
Putin says he wants them to observe a minute’s silence for Russian pilots killed during the aborted rebellion over the weekend.
Updated
Russian president Vladimir Putin held a phone call with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, on Tuesday, Russia’s RIA news agency reported, citing the Kremlin.
The prince expressed support for measures taken by Putin to end an armed mutiny by mercenary fighters on Saturday, it said.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
The Kremlin said on Tuesday it had no information on the whereabouts of Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the mercenary Wagner group. Under the terms of a deal that ended the weekend’s mutiny, Prigozhin was to be allowed to move to Belarus, and his fighters were given the chance to join Russia’s regular armed forces or to move to Belarus with him. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told his regular news briefing that the deal ending the mutiny was being implemented, and that Vladimir Putin always kept his word. He said he did not know how many Wagner fighters would sign contracts with the defence ministry following the deal.
The Kremlin said Putin will on Tuesday address members of Russian military units, the national guard, security forces and others who helped to uphold order during Saturday’s mutiny by mercenary fighters.
A Russian-registered Embraer Legacy 600 jet, which is linked to Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in US sanctions documents, flew to Belarus from Russia on Tuesday. There was no immediate indication of who was on board. Under a deal mediated by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Saturday to halt a mutiny by Prigozhin’s mercenary fighters, Prigozhin is reportedly meant to move to Belarus. Social media monitoring suggests the plane flew from Rostov to land near Minsk.
In a speech on Tuesday in the capital of Belarus, Lukashenko, said it had been “painful” to watch events unfold in Russia, and that he had put Belarusian troops and police on full alert during the crisis.
Putin used a Monday night address to accuse Ukraine and its western allies of wanting Russians to “kill each other” and claimed Prigozhin’s uprising was “doomed to fail”, adding that the country showed “unity” in the face of a “treacherous” rebellion.
Prigozhin released his first statement on Monday since the mutiny in which he denied his forces engaged in an attempted coup. In an 11-minute speech released via Telegram, Prigozhin said he was staging a protest at the treatment of his men and the conduct of the war with a “march for justice”. Wagner forces seized control of the military command in the southern city of Rostov and advanced within 200km of Moscow before pulling back. Prigozhin said his forces had set up artillery south of Moscow but decided that “a demonstration of protest was enough”.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has suggested in its daily intelligence briefing that for the first time Ukraine may have retaken territory in eastern Ukraine that lies beyond the de facto borders established between the Kyiv government and the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic in 2014.
Ukraine’s armed forces say they shot down two Kalibr cruise missiles on Monday night and seven Shahed UAV drones during attacks by Russian forces overnight.
Explosions have reportedly been heard in Kremenchuk and in Sumy oblast during Tuesday morning.
Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency is reporting that railway tracks have been damaged in eastern Crimea. It cites the Russian-imposed regional governor as saying repairs will take four to eight hours. It is unclear from reports what has caused the damage. Russia illegally seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces “advanced in all directions” on Monday following a meeting with his generals. “This is a happy day. I wished the guys [had] more days like this,” he added. His comments come after Ukrainian troops reportedly established a foothold near the Antonovsky Bridge on the left bank of the Dnipro and retook the village of Rivnopil.
Zelenskiy also visited two areas along the frontline in eastern and southern Ukraine on Monday. The Ukrainian president handed out awards and posed with troops in video footage posted online, including a to unit heavily involved in holding off a Russian advanced in city Bakhmut. “Thank you for protecting our country, sovereignty, our families, children, Ukraine,” he said.
Updated
Kremlin says it has no information on the current whereabouts of Yevgeny Prigozhin
The Kremlin said on Tuesday it had no information on the whereabouts of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the mercenary Wagner group.
Under the terms of a deal that ended the weekend’s mutiny, Prigozhin was to be allowed to move to Belarus, and his fighters were given the chance to join Russia’s regular armed forces or to move to Belarus with him.
Reuters reports that the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told his regular news briefing that the deal ending the mutiny was being implemented, and Vladimir Putin always kept his word. He said he did not know how many Wagner fighters would sign contracts with the Defence Ministry following the deal.
The Kremlin said Putin will on Tuesday address members of Russian military units, the national guard, security forces and others who helped to uphold order during Saturday’s mutiny by mercenary fighters.
Earlier, a plane linked to Prigozhin was reported to have landed near Minsk in Belarus.
In a speech earlier today in the capital of Belarus, its leader, Alexander Lukashenko, said it had been “painful” to watch events unfold in Russia, and that he had put Belarusian troops and police on full alert during the crisis.
Updated
Ukraine’s air force has suggested that two missiles were spotted before explosions were heard in Kremenchuk.
Reuters reports air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said on Ukrainian television:
Explosions were heard in Kremenchuk. We are waiting to hear from regional administrations about the implications of the explosions.
He added that at least two missiles had been spotted. It is exactly a year since Russian missiles struck a shopping centre in the city, killing many.
The Kremlin has announced that Vladimir Putin will make a series of appearances today, including to address the military from the Kremlin’s Cathedral Square.
Reuters reports the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also told his regular news briefing that Putin would hold individual meetings with some military officers and would speak with the heads of Russian media on Tuesday evening.
Updated
Suspilne has now reported that an explosion has been heard in Sumy region, in the north-east of Ukraine.
More details soon …
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that explosions have been heard in Kremenchuk, in Poltava oblast. It states that an air alert has been announced in the region, which is to the north of Dnipropetrovsk and to the east of Kyiv region.
More details soon …
Updated
A UN monitoring mission in Ukraine has said Russia has detained more than 800 civilians since the conflict began last February, of whom 77 were executed.
Reuters notes the report showed that Ukraine had also violated international law by arbitrarily detaining civilians but on a considerably smaller scale.
The UN rights office had “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 report said, adding that the detentions by Russia had taken place in both Ukraine and Russia.
“While such conduct was found in relation to both parties to the conflict, there was greater prevalence of conduct attributed to forces of the Russian Federation.”
Updated
During his speech in Minsk today, the Belarus leader, Alexander Lukashenko, said it had been “painful” to watch events unfold in Russia over the weekend, and that he had put Belarusian troops and police on full alert during the crisis.
Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass quotes Lukashenko saying:
I won’t hide it, it was painful to watch the events that took place in the south of Russia. Not only for me. Many of our citizens took them to heart. Because the fatherland is one.
The army during the afternoon, all the armed forces, including the police, special forces, were put on full combat readiness
History remembers: Belarusians know how to defend their land. We have been and will be stronger than any challenges.
Updated
Russian defence ministry: Wagner group is preparing to hand over 'heavy military equipment'
Russia’s defence ministry has announced that the Wagner mercenary group is preparing to hand over its heavy military equipment in a brief statement. The statement reads in full:
Preparations are under way to pass over PMC Wagner’s armoured hardware to the Russian armed forces.
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Russia's FSB drops criminal case over Wagner armed rebellion
Russian media reports that the FSB has closed its investigation into the weekend’s armed rebellion by Wagner forces, who seized military buildings in Rostov and then marched on Moscow.
State-owned media Tass reports:
The criminal case on the fact of the armed rebellion was closed, according to the FSB. During the investigation of the criminal case, it was established that its participants stopped their actions aimed at committing a rebellion.
Reuters is carrying two quick and significant snaps, citing Russian media sources. The defence ministry has said that Wagner mercenaries are preparing to hand over their equipment to it, and the security service in Russia has said criminal cases over the weekend’s armed mutiny have been dropped.
More details soon …
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Also in Belarus today, its authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, is giving a set-piece speech. We’ll bring you any key lines that emerge.
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Jet linked to Prigozhin lands in Belarus – reports
A Russian-registered Embraer Legacy 600 jet, which is linked to the Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in US sanctions documents, flew to Belarus from Russia on Tuesday. There was no immediate indication of who was onboard.
Reuters reports Flightradar24 showed the business jet flew to Belarus early on Tuesday.
The idenfication codes of the aircraft match those of a jet linked by the US to Autolex Transport which is linked to Prigozhin by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Under a deal mediated by the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Saturday to halt a mutiny by Prigozhin’s mercenary fighters, Prigozhin is reportedly meant to move to Belarus.
Social media monitoring suggests the plane flew from Rostov to land near Minsk.
A Embraer Legacy 600 with the Registration “RA-02795” which is reportedly a Business Jet used by Wagner PMC Leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin has landed at Machulishchy Air Force Base to the South of Minsk, Belarus after Taking-Off from an Air Field in the Rostov Region of Southwestern… pic.twitter.com/Ny0oomL6bN
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 27, 2023
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Keir Giles, who works with the Russia and Eurasia programme of Chatham House and is the author of Russia’s War on Everybody, writes for our opinion desk today, saying Ukraine’s biggest enemy is the western belief that it cannot beat Putin – now is the time to rethink that:
Consistent patterns of Russian behaviour over decades and centuries, combined with the clearly stated aims of the current leadership and the disposition of much of its population, make clear defeat for Russia essential. These patterns make it plain that an inconclusive outcome in Ukraine, if crystallised in the form of a ceasefire agreement, would constitute a victory for Moscow and a validation of its choice to embark on the path of conflict. Any perception of success – which Russia will measure by ground held, not by lives or materiel lost – will leave the Kremlin convinced that its assault on Ukraine was the correct choice.
Importantly, the presumptions of exceptionalism, entitlement and impunity that drove the assault on Ukraine are prevalent not just among leaders and active supporters of the regime but also among those notionally in opposition, including the sectors of Russian “liberal” society that fully subscribe to the notion that Ukraine has no right to independent existence. It is only a clear and unambiguous check to Russia’s ambition that will start to challenge these attitudes.
Read more here: Keir Giles – Ukraine’s biggest enemy is the western belief that it cannot beat Putin. Now is the time to rethink that
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The UK’s Ministry of Defence has suggested in its daily intelligence briefing that Ukraine may have retaken territory in eastern Ukraine that lies beyond the de facto borders established between the Kyiv government and the self-proclaimed republic in Donetsk in 2014. It writes:
Ukrainian airborne forces have made small advances east from the village of Krasnohorivka, near Donetsk city, which sits on the old line of control.
This is one of the first instances since Russia’s February 2022 invasion that Ukrainian forces have highly likely recaptured an area of territory occupied by Russia since 2014.
Recent multiple concurrent Ukrainian assaults throughout the Donbas have likely overstretched Donetsk People’s Republic and Chechen forces operating in this area.
The claims have not been independently verified.
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If you wanted something to listen to on the topic of Russia, then our Today in Focus podcast for Tuesday features the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent, Andrew Roth, talking to Nosheen Iqbal about what the Wagner mutiny means for Ukraine, Russia and Putin.
You can listen to it here:
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Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency is reporting that railway tracks have been damaged in eastern Crimea. It cites the Russian-imposed regional governor as saying repairs will take four to eight hours. It is unclear from reports what has caused the damage. Russia illegally seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Here is the video clip of Vladimir Putin’s address to the nation last night after the aborted Wagner uprising at the weekend.
As my colleagues Andrew Roth and Pjotr Sauer reported earlier, in an unscheduled late night televised address on Monday, a visibly angry Putin said: “Any blackmail or way to bring confusion to Russia is doomed to failure … I made steps to avoid large-scale bloodshed.”
In his first public appearance since Prigozhin abandoned his armed mutiny on Saturday evening, the Russian president thanked Wagner fighters and commanders who he said had stood down to avoid bloodshed.
Without mentioning Prigozhin by name, Putin said the organisers of the rebellion “betrayed their country, their people”. He said the enemies of Russia “wanted Russian soldiers to kill each other, to kill military personnel and civilians, so that in the end Russia would lose, and our society would split, choke in bloody civil strife”.
He also confirmed reports that Russian pilots were killed during the failed mutiny, paying tribute to the dead. “The courage and self-sacrifice of the fallen hero pilots saved Russia from tragic devastating consequences,” he said.
The Russian president appeared to suggest that the Wagner group would still be shut down, saying that the group’s fighters had the choice to sign a contract with the ministry of defence or relocate to Belarus if they wanted to.
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Ukraine’s armed forces say they shot down two Kalibr cruise missiles on Monday night and seven Shahed UAV drones during attacks by Russian forces overnight.
In its morning update, it said Russian forces carried out 45 airstrikes and launched 38 attacks with rocket salvo systems inside Ukraine. It reported fighting around Lyman and Bakhmut, with 38 combat engagements taking place on Monday.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address on Monday that Ukrainian forces had “advanced in all directions” following a meeting with his generals.
Today – the front. Donetsk region, Zaporizhzhia. Our warriors, our frontline positions, areas of active operations at the front. Today, our warriors have advanced in all directions, and this is a happy day. I wished the guys more days like this.
His comments come after Ukrainian troops reportedly established a foothold near the Antonovsky Bridge on the left bank of the Dnipro and retook the village of Rivnopil.
Zelenskiy also visited the frontline in three places across Ukraine where he met units and gave awards.
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A detachment of ships of the Russian Pacific Fleet entered the southern parts of the Philippine Sea to perform tasks as part of a long-range sea passage, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday.
Citing the press service of the Pacific Fleet, Interfax reported that the crews would conduct manoeuvres “with a demonstration of the naval presence” in the Asia-Pacific
Region and “as part of strengthening partnerships.”
There was no further detail on how many ships were involved.
Russia has been boosting defences in its vast far-eastern regions bordering the Asia-Pacific, accusing the U.S. of expanding its presence there and raising security concerns in Japan and across the region.
- Reuters
Russia’s defence ministry said early on Tuesday that it was conducting tactical fighter jet exercises over the Baltic Sea with the main goal of testing readiness to perform combat and special tasks operations.
In a post to the Telegram messaging app, the ministry said:
The crews of the Su-27 (fighter jets) of the Baltic Fleet fired from airborne weapons at cruise missiles and mock enemy aircraft,”
The main goal of the exercise is to test the readiness of the flight crew to perform combat and special tasks as intended.”
The ministry said that in addition to improving skills, the fighter jets crews are on “round-the-clock combat duty” guarding the air space of Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.
- Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin used an address to the nation on Monday to accuse Ukraine and its Western Allies of wanting Russians to “kill each other” following a mutiny by the mercenary group Wagner.
The address was his first public appearance since the confrontation over the weekend in which he thanked Russians for their “patriotism”.
From the start of the events, on my orders steps were taken to avoid large-scale bloodshed.
It was precisely this fratricide that Russia’s enemies wanted: both the neo-Nazis in Kyiv and their Western patrons, and all sorts of national traitors. They wanted Russian soldiers to kill each other.
Meanwhile US President Joe Biden gave a speech at the White House where he described the mutiny as “part of a struggle within the Russian system” and stressed that the US communicated that it was not involved.
We made it clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it.
President Biden said he discussed the situation in a conference call with allies who resolved not to allow Putin to blame events n the West or NATO.
- Reuters
Vladimir Putin has paid tribute to pilots killed fighting an aborted mutiny over the weekend, confirming for the first time that Russian aviators had been lost in battle as the Wagner mercenary group marched on Moscow.
Putin’s televised address on Monday was his first public comment since Saturday’s armed revolt led by mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, and confirmed reports on social media that Wagner forces had downed Russian aircraft in the fighting.
The courage and self-sacrifice of the fallen heroes-pilots saved Russia from tragic devastating consequences.
There has been no official information about how many pilots died or how many aircraft were shot down.
A very flat Russian Mi-8MTPR-1 downed by Wagner forces. https://t.co/oZrirwiPa0 pic.twitter.com/gO2jKwyX2N
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) June 26, 2023
Some Russian Telegram channels monitoring Russia’s military activity, including the blog Rybar with more than a million subscribers, reported on Saturday that 13 Russian pilots were killed during the day-long mutiny.
Among the aircraft downed were three Mi-8 MTPR electronic warfare helicopters, and an Il-18 aircraft with its crew, Rybar reported.
These claims could not be independently verified.
- Reuters
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Opening summary
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine – this is Royce Kurmelovs bringing you the latest developments.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has given a late night address to the nation ahead of a meeting with his generals and security officials following the mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mercenary group. Putin paid tribute to Russian pilots who were killed during the uprising, confirming reports that several planes and helicopters were shot down and thanked security officials, including defence minister Sergei Shoigu, for their response.
Putin did not explicitly name Prigozhin but used the address to accuse Ukraine and its western allies of wanting Russians to “kill each other”. He claimed claimed Prigozhin’s uprising was “doomed to fail”, adding that the country showed “unity” in the face of a “treacherous” rebellion. These comments have been rejected by US President Joe Biden who said the US has repeatedly told Russia it viewed the mutiny as an internal Russian matter.
Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces had “advanced in all directions” on Monday following a meeting with his generals. “This is a happy day. I wished the guys [had] more days like this,” he added. His comments come after Ukrainian troops reportedly established a foothold near the Antonovsky Bridge on the left bank of the Dnipro and retook the village of Rivnopil.
Zelenskiy also visited two areas along the frontline in eastern and southern Ukraine on Monday. The Ukrainian president handed out awards and posed with troops in video footage posted online, including a to unit heavily involved in holding off a Russian advanced in city Bakhmut. “Thank you for protecting our country, sovereignty, our families, children, Ukraine,” he said.
In other news:
Prigozhin released his first statement since the mutiny in which he denied his forces engaged in an attempted coup. In an 11-minute speech released via Telegram, Prigozhin said he was staging a protest at the treatment of his men and the conduct of the war with a “march for justice”. Wagner forces seized control of the military command in the southern city of Rostov and advanced within 200km of Moscow before pulling back. Prigozhin said his forces had set up artillery south of Moscow but decided that “a demonstration of protest was enough”.
The US has prepared a $500m military aid package for Ukraine. The package will deliver ground vehicles, including Bradley fighting vehicles and Stryker armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine as the country continues its offensive. The announcement follows a pledge by the Australian government to deliver a new $110m military assistance package in the next round of support for Ukraine, including vehicles, ammunition and humanitarian funding.
The defence ministry released footage on Monday that it claimed showed Shoigu “visiting the forward command post of one of the formations of the ‘western’ group of troops”. In the video, Shoigu is shown riding in a vehicle and arriving at a command post, where he listens to reports from officers and pores over a battlefield map. The video was released without sound and it was unclear when and where it was filmed, nonetheless, the footage showed tacit government support for Shoigu.
The aborted Wagner mutiny demonstrates that Moscow committed a strategic mistake by waging war on Ukraine, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday. “The events over the weekend are an internal Russian matter, and yet another demonstration of the big strategic mistake that President Vladimir Putin made with his illegal annexation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine,” he told reporters on a visit to Lithuania’s capital Vilnius.
Events over the weekend show that Russia’s military power is “cracking” and the “monster Putin has created is turning against him”, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs Josep Borrell has said. But he warned the instability in Russia is dangerous for Europe and must be taken into account in the coming days and weeks.
Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda warned that Nato would need to strengthen its eastern flank if Prigozhin is exiled to Belarus. Following a state security council meeting on the mercenary group’s attempt to revolt against Russian military leadership, Nausėda said: “If Prigozhin or part of the Wagner group ends up in Belarus with unclear plans and unclear intentions, it will only mean that we need to further strengthen the security of our eastern borders.”
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