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☆ The war in Ukraine in 12 key moments
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Sophie Tanno | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

We’ve been taking a look at some of the most significant moments of the war so far. Putin’s announcement signaled the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has so far cost the lives of over 10,300 civilians, according to the United Nations. May 20, 2023: Russia takes control of BakhmutUkrainian army medics treat wounded soldiers at a stabilisation point near Bakhmut frontline. June 2023: Ukraine counteroffensiveUkrainian soldiers shoot rounds into Russian positions with an S60 anti-aircraft canon placed on a truck, outside Bakhmut. February 8, 2024: Ukraine military chief firedCommander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi during an event dedicated to Ukraine's Independence Day on August 24, 2023 in Kyiv.

Persons: Vladmir Putin, Putin, We’ve, ’, Volodymyr Zelensky, Pavel Klimov, ”, Marko Djurica, Russia's, Kolya Serga, Ed Ram, Sefa, Diego Herrera Carcedo, Moscow, Bakhmut, Wojciech Grzedzinski, Wagner, Prigozhin, Reuters Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russia’s Wagner, Alexander Lukashenko, Mike Johnson, Samuel Corum, Ukraine Valerii, Yan Dobronosov, Zelensky, Ukraine’s, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, CNN’s Jennifer Hauser, Victoria Butenko, Daria Tarasova, Andrew Carey Organizations: CNN, NATO, Reuters, Ukraine, United Nations, Presidential Press, Snake, Social Media, Anadolu Agency, Concord, Putin, Getty, Republican, Armed Forces, Moscow Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Moscow, Russia’s, Kyiv, United States, Russian, West, Dnipro, Hroza, Kharkiv, Bucha, Moskva, Crimea, Kherson, Ukrainian, Kremlin, Belgorod, Bakhmut, NATO, Robotyne, Mariupol, Washington , DC, Avdiivka

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Latvia’s president says Russia is planning for a long war in Ukraine and he has a message for countries wavering on continuing military support to Kyiv: Keep supplying arms or the Ukrainians will lose and Russia will have a green light for threatening others in the future. In July, Rinkēvičs was sworn in as president of Latvia, which was part of the Soviet Union until its break-up in August 1991. He said it is important for the West to support both Ukraine and Israel against attacks on “our values” and the international order. Rinkēvičs said the EU and NATO need to prepare for a long war in Ukraine. Many experts and officials have said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hope is to outlast Western support for Ukraine in a long war.

Persons: —, Edgars Rinkēvičs, Russia’s Wagner, Rinkēvičs, ”, “, ” Rinkēvičs, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s, Vladimir Putin’s, “ Let’s, let’s Organizations: UNITED NATIONS, Associated Press, European Union, NATO, Russia, Russia’s, Gaza Health Ministry, EU, Ukraine, Security Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Kyiv, Europe, Africa, Gaza, Israel, Latvia, Soviet Union, Baltic, EU, Iran, It's, Moscow, ” Ukraine, United State, Asia, Taiwan, Latvian, United States, Nazi Germany, New York

☆ The Iran-Russia Military Axis
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: David Asman interviews Gen. David Petraeus. Images: AP/Getty Images Composite: Mark KellyRepublican critics of aiding Ukraine claim that there’s no connection between Russia’s aggression and the war in Israel. They’re ignoring the major strategic development in the last year, which is the deepening military alliance between Russia and Iran that threatens U.S. interests. The Journal reported Thursday that the U.S. has intelligence that Russia’s Wagner mercenary group is planning to send air defenses to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The air defenses would complicate Israel’s ability to defend its cities from Hezbollah’s missile attacks.

Persons: David Asman, David Petraeus, Mark Kelly, Russia’s Wagner Organizations: Israel Locations: Ukraine, Israel, Russia, Iran, Lebanon

☆ Russia’s Wagner Group May Provide Air Defense Weapon to Hezbollah, U.S. Intel Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | Vivian Salama | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

After the death of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin is putting a new power structure in place that will take over the group’s sprawling operations in Africa, which have advanced Russian influence on the continent for almost a decade. Photo illustration: JJ LinThe U.S. has intelligence that the Wagner Group, the Russian paramilitary group, may provide an air defense system to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia, U.S. officials say. The system in question is the SA-22, which uses antiaircraft missiles and air defense guns, to intercept aircraft.

Persons: Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, JJ Lin The Organizations: Wagner Group, Russian, Lebanese, SA Locations: Africa, JJ Lin The U.S, U.S

☆ Russia’s Wagner Group Plans to Send Air Defenses to Hezbollah, U.S. Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Michael R. Gordon | Vivian Salama | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

After the death of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin is putting a new power structure in place that will take over the group’s sprawling operations in Africa, which have advanced Russian influence on the continent for almost a decade. Photo illustration: JJ LinWagner Group, the Russian paramilitary organization, plans to provide an air-defense system to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia, U.S. officials say, citing intelligence. The Russian SA-22 system they plan to send uses antiaircraft missiles and air-defense guns to intercept aircraft.

Persons: Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, JJ Lin Wagner Organizations: JJ Lin Wagner Group, Lebanese, Russian SA Locations: Africa, Russian, U.S

☆ Fact Check-Image does not show Wagner tanks spelling out an expletive
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The reports credit U.S. space tech company Maxar Technologies as having taken the photo on Nov. 1, 2021. A Maxar satellite image of the same location but rotated about 90 degrees taken the same day was published by Reuters (image 2/5) (here). The caption states that photograph shows elements of the Russian 41st Combined Arms Army in Yelnya, Russia. Reuters reported that around 1,000 Russian military vehicles were seen via satellite imagery near Yelnya (here). The satellite photograph of a Russian military unit has been altered to add profanity.

Persons: Russia’s, Read Organizations: Group, Facebook, Reuters, Technologies, Russian, Combined Arms Army, Ukrainian Defence Ministry, Arms Army Locations: Yelnya, Ukraine, Russia, Ukrainian, Russian

Still, without the Kremlin’s clear imprimatur, the group’s operations risk falling apart. Even after the mutiny, Mr. Prigozhin, who handled the business side of the group, was flying to locations in Africa trying to reassure clients and continue operations. His travels came amid reports that the Russian Defense Ministry was trying to assert direct control over some of his foreign operations. But she suspected that future such operations might be more fractured. She said that going forward there could be “many different actors fulfilling these roles, rather than one monopoly.”

Persons: Putin, Prigozhin, Catrina, ” Ms, Doxsee Organizations: Central African, Russian Defense Ministry, Center for Strategic, International Studies Locations: St . Petersburg, Russia, Mali, Central African Republic, Libya, Africa, Moscow

The study found more than 110 pro-Wagner accounts operating in more than a dozen languages across Meta’s platforms. Even if the accounts are not directly affiliated with the Wagner group, ISD said, the content they created still likely violates Meta’s terms. The ISD report, meanwhile, highlights how there may be additional violating content that Meta has not detected and removed. Of these pages, ISD wrote, “the most viewed post, a video with over 712,000 views, shows Wagner mercenary forces testing tank traps set up at a defensive line in Ukraine. These pages were also found to be luring Facebook users to Telegram with links to graphic content showing dead bodies.”

Persons: Russia’s Wagner, Meta, Wagner, Biden, ISD, Yevgeny Prigozhin —, —, “, Prigozhin, dehumanizing, ” Wagner, ” Organizations: CNN, Facebook, Strategic, ISD, Internet Research Agency, Washington, Meta, Meta’s Locations: London, Ukraine

☆ Opinion | The Deluge Facing Africa’s Leaders Is Going to Get Worse
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Alex De Waal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

An uninterrupted swath of African countries from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea is now under military rule. Some of the putschists deposed elected leaders, like Niger’s president, Mohamed Bazoum. Others forestalled elections or even overthrew the leaders they had installed. Throughout much of Africa, citizens also overwhelmingly want democracy, but they get frustrated when elected leaders don’t deliver. When people do welcome a coup, it’s often because they see it as the path to a better elected government.

Persons: Mohamed Bazoum, Russia’s Wagner, can’t, don’t, it’s Organizations: African, Russia’s Wagner Group Locations: Mali, Guinea, Chad, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Niger, Washington, Brussels, London, Addis Ababa, African Union, Moscow, Africa

☆ Poland to Deploy 2,000 Troops To Reinforce Belarus Border
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Cassandra Vinograd | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Poland will send an additional 2,000 troops to reinforce its border with Belarus, a deputy interior minister told Poland’s state news agency on Wednesday, amid heightened tensions in the area related to the war in Ukraine. The minister, Maciej Wasik, said that the deployment was double what the country’s Border Guard had requested and that the reinforcements would arrive in two weeks, according to PAP, Poland’s state news agency. There was no immediate response from Belarus. Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said last week that there were at least 4,000 Wagner fighters in Belarus. He warned against “provocations” and “sabotage actions” from Belarus by the relocated Wagner fighters, a caution that came days after two Belarusian helicopters breached Polish airspace, heightening jitters in the region.

Persons: Maciej Wasik, Wasik, Russia’s Wagner, Mateusz Morawiecki, Wagner Organizations: country’s Border Guard, NATO Locations: Poland, Belarus, Ukraine

“I write this as a hostage,” Bazoum wrote in the Washington Post. Bazoum also cautioned that foreign aid makes up 40% of the national budget – and it would not be delivered if the coup succeeds. ‘Determined, optimistic’CNN has not been able to independently confirm the conditions under which Bazoum is being detained in his residence. Bazoum also warned of growing Russian influence in the Sahel region. “With an open invitation from the coup plotters and their regional allies, the entire central Sahel region could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group,” Bazoum wrote.

Persons: CNN —, Mohamed Bazoum, ” Bazoum, ”, –, Bazoum, “, ‘, Idrissa Waziri, he’s, ” Waziri, Waziri, Abdourahamane Tiani, Tiani, he’d, Wagner, Russia’s Wagner, Salifou Mody, Joe Biden, Patrick Ryder, evacuates Organizations: CNN, Washington Post, Burkina, junta, Nigerien, Wagner, Pentagon, US Defense Department Locations: Washington, Niamey, United States, West, “ Niger, Niger, Europe, France, Mali, Burkina Faso, Sahel

CNN —A summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and African leaders began in St. Petersburg on Thursday, with a far lower turnout than previous years. Just 17 heads of African states are attending this year, the Kremlin has confirmed, less than half of the 43 heads of state that attended the 2019 conference. And some African politicians – further than simply not attending the summit – have expressed grave concerns about Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine. Putin makes free grain pledgeThe African states being represented at the St. Petersburg summit will be keen to sway Russia into rejoining the grain deal, and Putin has courted African leaders for years in a deliberate effort to broaden Moscow’s global influence. Russia’s Wagner mercenaries have also been deployed in some African states.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, William Ruto, –, “, ”, Raila Odinga, ” Odinga, Putin, Russia’s Wagner, ” Putin, Sergei Lavrov, Cyril Ramaphosa’s, Maria Lvova Organizations: CNN, Kremlin, Kenyan, Putin, Russian, ”, Criminal Court, ICC Locations: St . Petersburg, United States, Moscow, Africa, Russia, Ukraine, St, Petersburg, Russian, Johannesburg, South Africa, Rome, Hague

London CNN —The United Kingdom government has been heavily criticized by Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee for underestimating the growth of Russia’s Wagner private mercenary group, despite it posing a major threat to the country’s interests. Wagner “essentially operate like a criminal mafia,” Kearns said in an interview with Sky News Wednesday. Barbara Debout/AFP/Getty Images/FILEIt also criticized the UK government for only beginning to seriously monitor the group after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. “It is deeply regrettable that it was not until early 2022 that the Government began to invest greater resource in understanding the Wagner Network, despite Wagner fighters having already conducted military operations in at least seven countries for almost a decade,” read the report. “The Government has not told us anything specific that it is doing to challenge the network’s influence and impunity outside of Ukraine,” the report said.

Persons: Russia’s Wagner, Wagner, ”, Alicia Kearns, Wagner “, ” Kearns, “, Barbara Debout Organizations: London CNN, United, Parliament’s Foreign, “, CNN, Sky News, Getty, Government, Wagner Network, European Union Locations: Africa, Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, Central African Republic, Libya, Mozambique, Mali, Bangui, AFP, “, United States

☆ Podcast: On the front line of Ukraine's counteroffensive
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Ukraine’s counteroffensive has slowed after retaking a string of villages. We’re on the front lines as Ukrainian forces seek to push Russian troops closer to the sea. Time is running out for the missing Titanic tourist sub. Plus, Powell in Congress, a gas explosion in China and the New Mexico woodcutters helping protect against wildfires. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices.

Persons: Russia’s Wagner, Powell, Zelenskiy, Putin, Ukraine Fed's Powell Organizations: Apple, Google, Reuters, Thomson, Reading Locations: We’re, Ukraine, Congress, China, Mexico, Reading Ukraine

☆ Wagner Chief Says Bakhmut Is Taken; Ukraine Rejects Claim
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Marc Santora | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The head of Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group said his mercenaries had captured Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, a claim the Ukrainian military denied even as their soldiers have been forced into an ever shrinking patch of land inside the ruined city. Senior Ukrainian military officials acknowledged that the situation inside the city was “critical,” with soldiers facing an unrelenting barrage of artillery fire and powerful aerial bombardments. Nevertheless, they said, the Ukrainian forces were still engaged in combat operations. The Russian Ministry of Defense and the Kremlin released a statement confirming the city had been “liberated,” hours after the declaration by the Wagner chief, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, that the fight for the city was over. After nearly a year of fighting, Bakhmut has taken on an outsize importance: a symbol of Ukrainian defiance and of Russian leaders’ determination to blast their way to a small victory in a little-known corner of eastern Ukraine.

☆ US says Wagner Group is trying to use third countries to obscure weapons shipments to Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Natasha Bertrand | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —The Russian mercenary organization Wagner Group has been working to obscure its efforts to acquire military equipment for use in Ukraine, including by trying to source the materials from Mali, where the group has a strong foothold, a US official told CNN. That document also said that Wagner was likely trying to use weapons procured from Turkey for use in its operations in Mali. The White House has also previously accused North Korea of supplying Russia’s Wagner Group with missiles and rockets for use in Ukraine. “Wagner is directly supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine, and we oppose efforts by any other country to assist Russia through Wagner,” the US official said. We will continue to identify, expose, and counter these efforts by Wagner to procure military equipment for use in Ukraine.”

☆ Mysterious Killing of Chinese Gold Miners Puts New Pressure on Beijing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Nicole Hong | Elian Peltier | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Chinese embassy in the Central African Republic had a stark warning for its compatriots in the landlocked nation: Do not leave the capital city of Bangui. Kidnappings of foreigners were on the rise, and any Chinese person outside of Bangui was to leave those areas immediately. Less than a week later, on March 19, a group of gunmen stormed a remote gold mine far away from Bangui and killed nine Chinese workers. The Central African government has said that it investigated the massacre and concluded that a leading rebel group had orchestrated it. The investigation has left a trail of unanswered questions about the motives and methods of the attackers.

☆ Wagner Leader Threatens to Pull Out of Bakhmut: Russia-Ukraine War Live News
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Matt Surman | Ivan Nechepurenko | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

“These are Wagner guys who died today; the blood is still fresh,” Mr. Prigozhin said, in a speech marked by frequent bleeped-out expletives. The Wagner chief has long criticized Russian military leadership openly, with some analysts attributing the tensions to rivalries for President Vladimir V. Putin’s favor. Mr. Prigozhin has never pointed a finger directly at Mr. Putin over Russia’s setbacks in the war. In February, Mr. Prigozhin accused Mr. Shoigu and General Gerasimov of treason, claiming they were starving Wagner of ammunition. The problem for Wagner was not a lack of ammunition, Mr. Cherevaty said, but a shortage of people to fight and die.

☆ Russian Mercenary Leader Threatens to Pull Forces From Bakhmut Next Week
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Neil Macfarquhar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

☆ Analysis: Cross-border attacks as Russia and Ukraine seek to weaken each other ahead of expected offensive
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Nick Paton Walsh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Ukraine is apparently striking at fuel depots in Russian-occupied areas and inside Russia itself – seemingly precise attacks but ones to which Kyiv is making no overt claim. Russia has been lashing out at what often seem to be civilian targets in Ukraine, either in rage or through ineptitude. Ukraine was quick to capitalize on that statement and sent senior officials to the area to claim Russia had already begun pulling back. And now, in Kherson, Ukrainian officials have ordered a 58-hour curfew from 8 p.m. on May 5, barring locals from leaving their houses. This comes amid a deluge of comments from Ukrainian officials that the weather - for the past fortnight alternating between rain and bold sunshine - has held them back.

☆ Opinion: How Putin’s ‘cat’s paw’ sunk into Sudan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Opinion Frida Ghitis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

International sanctions complicated Russia’s finances, so the Kremlin used the Wagner Group to get its hands on Sudan’s gold mines. It wasn’t the first time Wagner, Putin’s cat’s paw, had moved deep into mineral-rich Africa. It wanted one on the Mediterranean, which was one of the reasons it intervened – with a strong Wagner Group presence – in the Syrian civil war. But his credibility is in tatters (asked about Wagner’s massacres in Mali a few years ago, he answered “the Wagner Group does not exist”). And all for the sake of two men’s quest for power, aided by the machinations of the Kremlin and the maneuvers of its Wagner Group.

CNN —The son of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Nikolai Peskov, claimed in an interview with Russian media that he decided to serve in Ukraine with Russia’s Wagner mercenary force. Children of government figures and Russia’s elite have received criticism in the past for failing to fight in Ukraine. Nikolai Peskov’s interview comes after the Wagner chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said on Friday that the Kremlin spokesperson’s son had served as a gunner with his mercenary force. According to Prigozhin, Nikolai Peskov served in PMC Wagner for six months under false documents with a different last name, working as a loader of an ammunition supply vehicle. The Wagner chief said Peskov attended a three-week training at their base in Molkino and later “left for Luhansk.”

☆ Russia’s Wagner Offered Arms to Sudanese General Battling Army
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Jared Malsin | Benoit Faucon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo at a press conference at Rapid Support Forces headquarters in Khartoum, Sudan, in February. Photo: MOHAMED NURELDIN ABDALLAH/REUTERSRussia’s paramilitary Wagner Group has offered heavy weapons to the leader of Sudan’s Rapid Support Force, one of two rival factions battling for control of the East African country, according to a current and a former U.S. official, and a person close to the Sudanese general. The Kremlin-backed group has offered to send arms, including shoulder-mounted MANPADS antiaircraft missiles, that it has in neighboring Central African Republic, where Wagner has been active in recent years, these people said.

☆ Exclusive: Evidence emerges of Russia’s Wagner arming militia leader battling Sudan’s army
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Nima Elbagir Gianluca Mezzofiore Tamara Qiblawi Barbara Arvanitidis | Nima Elbagir | Gianluca Mezzofiore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

London CNN —The Russian mercenary group Wagner has been supplying Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) with missiles to aid their fight against the country’s army, Sudanese and regional diplomatic sources have told CNN. Haftar has backed the RSF, sources say, although he denies taking sides. That day, Russia airdropped surface-to-air missiles to Dagalo’s militia positions in northwest Sudan, according to regional and Sudanese sources. For years, Dagalo has been a key beneficiary from Russian involvement in Sudan, as the primary recipient of Moscow’s weapons and training. Egypt has a long-standing relationship with Burhan and has privately backed him in the power struggle, according to Sudanese and regional diplomatic sources.

☆ Scolding Isn’t a Foreign Policy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Walter Russell Mead | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Internationally, it was another grim week for the Biden administration, the United States of America, and world peace. Indian officials reported that China is supporting the development of a military listening post on Myanmar’s strategic Great Coco Island in the Bay of Bengal. Farther south, a Sudanese military faction backed by Russia’s Wagner Group battles for control of Africa’s third-largest nation. The usual spinners and makeup artists are doing their best to make the disorderly unraveling of the American-led world order look like a visionary triumph of enlightened foreign policy, but former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers expressed a more cogent view. What we get from the United States is a lecture.’ ”

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