DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Ukraine is vowing to defend 'fortress' Bakhmut as Russian forces surround it: Here are 3 reasons why
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Ukrainian infantrymen with the 28th Brigade view damaged buildings while driving to a frontline position facing Russian troops on March 05, 2023 outside of Bakhmut, Ukraine. Russian forces appear to be tightening the noose around the city in Donetsk. "The fall of Bakhmut won't necessarily mean that the Russians have changed the tide of this fight," he added, noting that he would not predict when Bakhmut might fall to Russian forces. Ukrainian military vehicles drive along a road outside of the strategic city of Bakhmut on January 18, 2023 in Bakhmut, Ukraine. On Tuesday, Zelenskyy warned that Russian troops will have "open road" to key cities in eastern Ukraine if they seize Bakhmut.

Ukraine recaptured swathes of territory in the second half of 2022 but its forces have been on the defensive for three months. It says the city has little strategic value but that the huge losses there could determine the course of the war. "Units of the private military company Wagner have practically surrounded Bakhmut. Both sides say they have inflicted devastating losses in Bakhmut. The task of our forces in Bakhmut is to inflict as many losses on the enemy as possible.

[1/4] Ukrainian service members prepare to shoot from a howitzer at a front line, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, near the city of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine March 2, 2023. It says it would be a stepping stone to capturing the surrounding Donbas region, a major war aim. "Units of the private military company Wagner have practically surrounded Bakhmut. Both sides say they have inflicted devastating losses in Bakhmut. The task of our forces in Bakhmut is to inflict as many losses on the enemy as possible.

☆ Russian mercenary chief says Ukraine's Bakhmut is practically surrounded
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia's Wagner mercenary force, speaks in Paraskoviivka, Ukraine in this still image from an undated video released on March 3, 2023. "Units of the private military company Wagner have practically surrounded Bakhmut. Only one road is left (open to Ukrainian forces) The pincers are getting tighter," said Prigozhin. Reuters geolocated the video to the village of Paraskoviivka, 4.3 miles (7 km) north of the centre of Bakhmut. Reuters geolocated the footage to the east of Bakhmut, around 1.2 miles (2 km) from the city centre.

☆ Chinese weather balloon maker denies connection to downed spy balloon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIJING, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Chinese weather balloon manufacturer Zhuzhou Rubber Research & Design Institute said it had no connection to the balloon shot down by the United States earlier this month and was not a military company. Zhuzhou Rubber, a unit of Chinese state chemical giant ChemChina, said it "is mainly engaged in manufacturing sounding balloons of natural latex in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations". "Our products are used for daily weather forecasting by weather stations, and do NOT have any connection with the so-called and reported U.S. balloon incident," it said in a statement posted on ChemChina's website. A suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, which Beijing denies was a government spy vessel, flew over the United States and Canada for a week before being shot down off the Atlantic Coast on U.S. President Joe Biden's orders. China has called the U.S. handling of the balloon incident "hysterical" and an "absurd" act that violated international norms.

☆ Russia's Prigozhin says Wagner fighters capture Ukrainian village near Bakhmut
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 25 (Reuters) - Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said forces of his Wagner group had captured the village of Yahidne, just north of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine on Saturday. "At 1900 on 25th February, storm units of the Wagner private military company secured complete control of the locality of Yagodnoye (Yahidne) to the north of Bakhmut," Prigozhin said in the clip. A day earlier, he said Wagner had taken control of Berkhivka, another village on the outskirts of Bakhmut. The months-long struggle for Bakhmut has seen some of the bloodiest attritional fighting of Russia's year-old invasion of Ukraine. Wagner units have suffered heavy losses, prompting Prigozhin to complain bitterly that the Russian defence establishment has failed to properly acknowledge their contribution.

☆ Russia's Wagner claims control of Ukrainian village near Bakhmut
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

MOSCOW, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Russia's Wagner group of mercenaries has taken full control of the Ukrainian village of Berkhivka, a village on the outskirts of Bakhmut, Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Friday. "Berkhivka is fully under our control. Units of Wagner Private Military Company are in full control of Berkhivka," he said in a post on social media. Berkhivka is about 3 km (1.9 miles) north-west from the suburbs of Bakhmut, a frontline city that has seen intense fighting. Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy FaulconbridgeOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. Intelligence Points to Wagner Plot Against Key Western Ally in Africa
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Benoit Faucon | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The U.S. has shared intelligence with authorities in Chad that the head of Russian paramilitary company Wagner Group is working with Chadian rebels to destabilize the government and potentially kill the president of the Central African nation, a key counterterrorism ally of the West, according to U.S., African and European officials. The vast, oil-rich desert nation of Chad sits at the center of Africa’s Sahel region, where Russia, with Yevgeny Prigozhin ‘s help, is openly challenging decades-old economic, military and political alliances with the West. A former French colony, Chad shares long, porous borders with Libya in the north, the Central African Republic in the south and Sudan in the east—three countries where Wagner already has a presence.

☆ Russian mercenary boss escalates row with top army brass with image of dead bodies
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Andrew Osborn | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The defence ministry, in a statement late on Tuesday, said such allegations were "completely untrue" and complained - without mentioning Prigozhin by name - about attempts to create splits that worked "solely to the benefit of the enemy". "This is one of the places where the bodies of those who have died are gathered," Prigozhin told a prominent Russian military blogger in an interview. But he has faced push back from the authorities in recent weeks amid some signs of a move by the Kremlin and defence ministry to curb his growing influence. "Twice as many of us are going to die that's all, until there are none of us left," he said. "And when Wagner are all dead then (Defence Minister) Shoigu and (General) Gerasimov will probably have to pick up a gun."

☆ Chechen leader says he wants to 'compete' with Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and create his own private military
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Sophia Ankel | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said the Wagner Group was showing "impressive results" in Ukraine. In a Telegram post, Kadyrov said he wants to compete with the group's founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Kadyrov added he plans on starting his own private military company, similar to Wagner. "It seems that the private military company managed to achieve very impressive results." "When my service to the state is completed, I seriously plan to compete with our dear brother Yevgeny Prigozhin and create a private military company.

☆ Chechnya's Kadyrov: one day I plan my own mercenary group
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MOSCOW, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia's Chechnya region, said on Sunday that he one day planned to set up his own private military company in the style of Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner Group of mercenaries. The rise of Wagner and other mercenary groups outside the traditional Russian and Soviet-era military command structures has raised concerns among diplomats that such groups could one day pose a threat to stability in Russia. In a post on Telegram, Kadyrov said that Wagner, which has been fighting alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, had achieved "impressive results" and said private military companies were a necessity. "When my service to the state is completed, I seriously plan to compete with our dear brother Yevgeny Prigozhin and create a private military company. I think it will all work out," said Kadyrov, who has served as head of the Chechen Republic since 2007.

☆ Russian inmates only had to march a few yards to be considered fit enough to fight in Ukraine for the Wagner Group, 2 captured fighters say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Two captured Wagner Group fighters say the company hired convicts as long as they could march a few yards. Both Russian fighters told CNN they were serving prison sentences when the Wagner Group approached them in September and August, offering six-month contracts in exchange for pardons. The pair said Prigozhin told them they would be stationed on the second line of defense on Russia's front, per CNN. Similar reports previously emerged of Russian reservists dying by the hundreds from Ukrainian shelling and of Wagner Group recruits being executed for refusing to participate in suicide charges. "Those who disobey are eliminated — and it's done publicly," Yevgeny Novikov, a former inmate recruited by Wagner, told the Russian independent outlet Poligon Media.

☆ Wagner founder Prigozhin says Russian forces take Ukraine village Krasna Hora, north of Bakhmut
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 12 (Reuters) - Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia's Wagner Group, said on Sunday that the mercenary force had taken the village of Krasna Hora on the northern edge of the embattled Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Bakhmut, a city in the eastern Donetsk region, has been the scene of brutal warfare for months. Kyiv's top military commander, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said on Saturday that Ukraine continues to hold Bakhmut, trying to "stabilise" the frontline around it. Prigozhin also published a short video, apparently showing Wagner fighters at the entrance sign to Krasna Hora, which had a pre-war population of 600. Prigozhin has previously engaged in public feuds with Russia's Defence Ministry, which he has accused of taking credit for Wagner successes.

☆ Russia has likely suffered its highest rate of casualties since the beginning of the war in the past 2 weeks, UK Defense Ministry says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

In the last 2 weeks, Russian casualties are likely the highest since the war began, the UK said. The Ukrainian General Staff estimated that the mean average for the last seven days was 824 Russian casualties. While it is difficult to accurately track the death toll of the war, Western officials estimate that Russia could be approaching nearly 200,000 casualties. A Ukrainian soldier fires towards Russian positions outside Bakhmut, Ukraine, on November 8, 2022. Although Prigozhin does not speak for the Russian military, his comments provide insight into Russian expectations of the war.

☆ Russia's Wagner mercenaries halt prisoner recruitment campaign - Prigozhin
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Visitors gather outside PMC Wagner Centre, which is a project implemented by the businessman and founder of the Wagner private military group Yevgeny Prigozhin, during the official opening of the office block in Saint Petersburg, Russia, November 4, 2022. REUTERS/Igor Russak/File PhotoMOSCOW, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Russia's Wagner mercenary group has stopped recruiting prisoners to fight in Ukraine, Wagner's founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Thursday. "The recruitment of prisoners by the Wagner private military company has completely stopped," Prigozhin said in a response to a request for comment from a Russian media outlet published on social media. The Wagner Group has in recent months played an increasingly prominent role in Russia's war in Ukraine, with the mercenary force spearheading a months-long assault on the Donetsk region town of Bakhmut. Previously secretive, Wagner and its founder Prigozhin have assumed an ever more public profile against the backdrop of the fighting in Ukraine, with Prigozhin criticising Russia's military leadership and certain officials.

☆ World's largest drone maker is unfazed — even if it's blacklisted by the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Nessa Anwar | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

watch nowThe world's biggest drone maker DJI found itself embroiled in the Russia-Ukraine conflict last year. It includes the Mavic 3 drone, and Aeroscope, a drone-detection platform that enables users to identify the location of a drone operator. We've stated unequivocally that we have had nothing to do with treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang," Welsh said. A drone's firmware is what the drone uses to control all the important operations, like flight, battery management and data protection. Paolo Stagno, a cyber security expert, said there is a black market of modified DJI drones' firmware.

☆ Biden says he will visit Poland but doesn't know when
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Nandita Bose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday said he will visit Poland but does not know when after reports suggested he is considering a trip to Europe to coincide with the Feb. 24 anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Biden also told reporters that the United States will not be providing F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. Ukraine won a huge boost for its troops last week when Germany and the United States announced plans to provide heavy tanks, ending weeks of diplomatic deadlock on the issue. Poland, Ukraine's neighbor on its western border, has positioned itself as one of the Kyiv government's staunchest allies. Reporting by Nandita Bose; Writing by Eric Beech; editing by Grant McCoolOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ North Korea calls U.S. pledge of tanks to Ukraine 'unethical crime'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Josh Smith | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SEOUL, Jan 29 (Reuters) - North Korea on Sunday criticized for a second day a U.S. decision to send tanks to Ukraine, calling it an "unethical crime" aimed at perpetuating an unstable international situation. Washington's allegations that North Korea has provided arms to Russia are a "groundless rumor" to justify its own military aid to Ukraine, Kwon Chung-keun, director of U.S. affairs at North Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA. "This is an unethical crime aimed at keeping the international situation unstable." Nuclear-armed North Korea launched an unprecedented number of missiles last year, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. The White House said in December that North Korea completed an initial arms delivery of infantry rockets and missiles to a private Russian military company, the Wagner Group, to shore up Russian forces in Ukraine.

Ukraine's military said it shot down 47 of 59 Russian missiles - some fired from Tu-95 strategic bombers in the Russian Arctic. Russia responded with fury to news on Wednesday that Germany and the United States would send dozens of modern tanks to Ukraine. [1/11] A local resident carry home staff from a house of his neighbour damaged by a Russian military strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Hlevakha, outside Kyiv, Ukraine January 26, 2023. After being promised modern tanks, Ukraine is now seeking Western fourth-generation fighter jets such as the U.S. F-16, an adviser to Ukraine's defence minister said. The United States on Thursday formally designated Russian private military company the Wagner Group as a transnational criminal organization, freezing its U.S. assets for helping Russia's military in the Ukraine war.

Ukraine said it had shot down all 24 drones sent overnight by Russia, including 15 around the capital, and 47 of 55 Russian missiles - some fired from Tu-95 strategic bombers in the Russian Arctic. Eleven people were killed and 11 wounded in the drone and missile strikes, which spanned 11 regions and also damaged 35 buildings, a State Emergency Service spokesperson said. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said electricity substations had been hit as Russia continued to target energy facilities. [1/7] Local residents remove debris from a house of their neighbour damaged by a Russian military strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Hlevakha, outside Kyiv, Ukraine January 26, 2023. Both Moscow and Kyiv, which have so far relied on Soviet-era T-72 tanks, are expected to mount new ground offensives in spring.

☆ U.S. designates Russian firm Wagner Group as criminal organization
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday formally designated Russian private military company the Wagner Group as a transnational criminal organization, freezing its U.S. assets for helping Russia's military in the Ukraine war. Last month the White House said the Wagner Group had taken delivery of an arms shipment from North Korea to help bolster Russian forces in Ukraine, in a sign of the group's expanding role in that conflict. *A Russian graveyard reveals Wagner’s prisoner armyReporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Tim AhmannOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Satellite images hint at scale of Russian mercenary group's losses in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Aina J. Khan | Aina Is A Freelance Reporter With Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The number of graves at a cemetery used by Russia's notorious mercenary Wagner Group has dramatically grown over the last two months, satellite images show. Satellite images show an increase in graves at a cemetery in Bakinskaya, Russia, from Nov. 24, 2022, to Jan. 24, 2023. The Wagner Group previously provided assistance to the Russian military during conflicts in Syria and Libya. The U.S. government said last week that it will designate Wagner Group as a “significant transnational criminal organization” and impose further sanctions against the organization and its support network. The Wagner Group did not comment on the satellite images and video footage.

REUTERS/Igor Russak/File PhotoWASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - The United States will impose additional sanctions next week against Russian private military company the Wagner Group, which U.S. officials say has been helping Russia's military in the Ukraine war, the White House said on Friday. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. Treasury Department will designate Wagner as a significant Transnational Criminal Organization. Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin last month denied taking delivery of arms from North Korea and characterized the report as "gossip and speculation." Kirby said Russian President Vladimir Putin has been increasingly turning to Wagner for military support, causing some tensions in Moscow. "Wagner is becoming a rival power center to the Russian military and other Russian ministries."

☆ Ukraine war live updates: Wagner mercenaries claim capture of village outside Bakhmut; Russia suspects U.S. citizen of espionage
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The head of the Wagner Group, a private military company fighting alongside regular Russian units in Ukraine, has claimed his forces have taken full control of Klishchiivka, a village just south of Bakhmut, a prime target for the Russian military. The enemy clings to every meter of the earth." Prigozhin contradicted reports that Ukrainian forces were fleeing Bakhmut (known as Artemovsk in Russia) saying, "contrary to various opinions that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are fleeing from Artemovsk, this is not so. But in any case, the units of PMC "Wagner" are moving forward meter by meter. The settlement of Artemovsk will be taken."

☆ Victory claims over small Ukrainian town expose rift among Russian forces
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Leila Sackur | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

A rare Russian claim of military victory in eastern Ukraine has laid bare a bitter rift between Moscow's military chiefs and the head of a private mercenary group that has been fighting in the region. Two days after Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group, announced that troops from his irregular private army had seized control of the small salt-mining town of Soledar, Russia's Defense Ministry announced victory in a statement Friday that made no mention of the mercenaries. The lack of praise for his group's role in what would be Russia’s largest battlefield success in months drew a sharp response from Prigozhin. The millionaire former restaurateur and ally of President Vladimir Putin claimed victory in Soledar on Wednesday, and the Wagner Group posted a photo that appeared to show Prigozhin with fighters in one of the town's salt mines. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his late-night video address that the battle “continues.”

Search resuls for: "Military Company"

25 mentions found