Russia-Ukraine war live: Lukashenko confirms Prigozhin has arrived in Belarus; Putin hails military for ‘stopping civil war’

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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.

Here are some of the images from Moscow earlier as President Vladimir Putin addressed the military.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Suspilne has now reported that an explosion has been heard in Sumy region, in the north-east of Ukraine.

More details soon …