(Minsk) Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko assured Thursday that the sulphurous boss of the Wagner group, Evguéni Prigojine, was in Russia, despite the agreement reached after his abortive rebellion which provided for him to go into exile in Belarus.
WHAT THERE IS TO KNOW
- The head of Wagner Evguéni Prigojine would be in Russia according to the Belarusian rpsédient;
- A Russian strike left several dead in Lviv;
- The Ukrainian authorities in Zaporijjia, a town located 50 km from the gigantic eponymous nuclear power plant, are preparing for the worst scenario;
- Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Sofia on Thursday to discuss the delivery of weapons to a major ammunition-producing Bulgaria.
In Ukraine, the night was marked by a Russian strike on Lviv, a major western city rarely targeted, which killed five people, in the most destructive attack on this region since the start of the war, according to the authorities. .
“As for Prigozhin, he is in Saint Petersburg. Where is he this morning? Maybe gone to Moscow, or elsewhere, but he is not on Belarusian territory, ”said Mr. Lukashenko during a press conference in Minsk.
According to him, Wagner’s fighters are also “in their permanent camps” in eastern Ukraine and not in Belarus, “for the moment”.
Yevgeny Prigojine was, according to the agreement made with the Kremlin via the mediation of Mr. Lukashenko which put an end to the Wagner mutiny on June 24, to leave for Belarus, an allied country and neighbor of Russia.
PHOTO VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Yevgeny Prigozhin
Asked about these claims, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied that Moscow is “not following the moves” of Wagner’s boss.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had called Mr Prigozhin a “traitor”, gave Wagner fighters the choice of enlisting in the regular army, leaving for Belarus or returning to civilian life.
Mr. Lukashenko announced on June 27 that Evgeny Prigojine had arrived in Belarus.
” My mother is dead ”
“I know for certain that he is free,” said Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday, claiming to have had a telephone conversation “yesterday” with Mr. Prigojine who assured him that he would continue to “work for Russia”.
The Belarusian president said the issue of Wagner’s “relocation” to Belarus was “unsettled”.
After his 24-hour mutiny which shook the Kremlin, Yevgeny Prigojine assured not to have wanted to seize power, but simply to protect Wagner from a dismantling by the Russian general staff, which he accuses of incompetence. .
On the ground, the salvo of Russian missiles that hit Lviv overnight damaged more than 30 apartment buildings and other buildings, according to local authorities.
“This is the most destructive attack against the civilian population of the Lviv region since the beginning of the war,” the head of the regional military administration, Maksym Kozytsky, noted on Telegram.
At least five people were killed and 37 injured, according to the Interior Ministry.
“I woke up from the first explosion, but we didn’t have time to leave the apartment. There was a second explosion, the ceiling started to fall,” Olya, a resident, told AFP.
“My mother is dead, my neighbors are dead. At this point, it looks like I’m the only one who survived on the fourth floor,” she added.
The Russian army claimed to have targeted sites of “temporary deployment” of Ukrainian soldiers. “All designated facilities have been affected,” the Ministry of Defense said.
Zelensky in Bulgaria
Nearly a month after the start of the counter-offensive aimed at driving Russian forces out of national territory, the Ukrainian general staff claimed progress “in certain places” around the devastated city of Bakhmout.
The Ukrainian army faces strong Russian defensive lines. It calls on Westerners to speed up their deliveries of arms, in particular American F-16 fighter planes and artillery ammunition.
Mr Zelensky is visiting Bulgaria, a major ammunition producer, on Thursday to discuss arms supplies and Kyiv’s prospects for NATO membership ahead of a major Alliance summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, scheduled for 11 -July 12.
Russia said the visit illustrated Kyiv’s desire to drag “more countries” into the conflict.
Ukraine’s president will also travel to Istanbul on Friday for talks with Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as Moscow threatens to pull out of the Turkey-sponsored Ukrainian grain export deal.
At the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, occupied by the Russian army in southern Ukraine, “tensions are decreasing”, Natalia Goumeniouk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian army for the southern front, reported on Thursday.
Moscow and Kyiv had been accusing each other for several days of an imminent provocation in this nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
Moscow finally announced to close a Finnish consulate and expel nine diplomats from this country, in retaliation for similar measures adopted by Helsinki in early June.