The “countdown has started” for the end of Vladimir Putin, Volodymr Zelensky’s top aide has claimed, as the Russian president reels from the aborted mutiny by Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Labelling him “an inadequate person who has lost connection with reality”, Andriy Yermak insisted that the “world must conclude that it’s impossible to have any kind of serious relationship” with Mr Putin’s Russia.
His remarks came as Mr Zelensky accused Russia of using S-300 missiles in an attack on a restaurant and several homes in the Donetsk city of Kramatorsk which authorities say has killed 10 people, three of them girls aged 14 to 17.
Another 56 people present at the restaurant – which is frequented by journalists, aid workers and soldiers who use Kramatorsk as a base of operations – were injured, the city council in Kramatorsk said, as rescue workers continue to comb through debris for casualties.
The city in frontline oblast of Donetsk has been a target of Russian attacks frequently and capturing it a key objective for Moscow.
