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Forum => Kenya Discussion => Topic started by: Nowayhaha on June 27, 2023, 07:06:02 PM
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Latvia and Lithuania called on Tuesday for Nato to strengthen its eastern borders in response to expectations that Russia’s Wagner mercenaries would set up a new base in Belarus after its abortive mutiny at home.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin arrived in Belarus on Tuesday under a deal negotiated by president Alexander Lukashenko that ended the mercenaries’ mutiny in Russia on Saturday. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wagner’s fighters would be offered the choice of relocating there.
“This move needs to be assessed from a different security point of view. We have seen the capabilities of those mercenaries,” Latvian foreign minister Edgars Rink?vi?s told reporters during a visit to Paris with Baltic counterparts.
The Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said the speed with which Wagner had advanced on Moscow, driving hundreds of miles in a one-day race towards the capital, showed that the defence of Baltic states should be firmed up
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11.33 EDT
The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, said on Tuesday that he had convinced Yevgeny Prigozhin in an emotional, expletive-laden phone call to end a mutiny by his Wagner militia that has jolted Russia.
Under a deal brokered by Lukashenko, an old friend, Prigozhin abandoned what he called a “march for justice” by thousands of his men on Moscow, in exchange for safe passage to exile in Belarus.
His men, who have spearheaded much of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, were also pardoned and have been given the choice of joining Prigozhin in Belarus, being integrated into Russia’s security forces, or simply going home.
Lukashenko, recounting his role in Saturday’s drama to Belarusian officers and officials, hailed Prigozhin as a “heroic guy” who had been shaken by the deaths of many of his men in Ukraine.
Updated at 11.57 EDT
11.18 EDT
Vladimir Putin has appeared outside at the Kremlin to tell members of Russia’s security services that they “prevented a civil war” during Yevgeny Prigozhin’s armed mutiny.
Russia’s main domestic security services and the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, whom Prigozhin had sought to oust with his uprising, were in the audience gathered in the Kremlin’s Cathedral Square for Putin’s speech.
Putin says security services ‘prevented civil war’ during Wagner mutiny – video
Updated at 11.57 EDT
11.09 EDT
Latvia and Lithuania called on Tuesday for Nato to strengthen its eastern borders in response to expectations that Russia’s Wagner mercenaries would set up a new base in Belarus after its abortive mutiny at home.
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin arrived in Belarus on Tuesday under a deal negotiated by president Alexander Lukashenko that ended the mercenaries’ mutiny in Russia on Saturday. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wagner’s fighters would be offered the choice of relocating there.
“This move needs to be assessed from a different security point of view. We have seen the capabilities of those mercenaries,” Latvian foreign minister Edgars Rink?vi?s told reporters during a visit to Paris with Baltic counterparts.
The Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said the speed with which Wagner had advanced on Moscow, driving hundreds of miles in a one-day race towards the capital, showed that the defence of Baltic states should be firmed up.
Updated at 11.37 EDT
10.47 EDT
Russian forces have carried out widespread and systematic torture of civilians detained in connection with its attack on Ukraine, summarily executing more than 70 of them, the UN human rights office said on Tuesday.
The global body interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses for a report detailing more than 900 cases of civilians, including children and elderly people, being arbitrarily detained in the conflict, most of them by Russia.
The vast majority of those interviewed said they were tortured and in some cases subjected to sexual violence during detention by Russian forces, the head of the UN human rights office in Ukraine said.
The 36-page report came as Beth Van Schaack, the US ambassador-at-large for Global Criminal Justice, said Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, had implicated Vladimir Putin in war crimes by admitting the original invasion was not justified by any provocative actions by Ukraine.
UN says Russian forces have tortured and executed civilians in Ukraine
Updated at 10.47 EDT
10.36 EDT
It was a dramatic 24 hours in Russia, when the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, mutinied, turning his forces back toward Russia in what he described as a “march for justice”.
The organisation has been one of the most effective parts of Vladimir Putin’s fighting machine in Ukraine, but a feud between Prigozhin and senior Russian generals had been simmering for months over the Kremlin’s leadership of the invasion and occupation of Ukraine.
Will the Wagner mutiny cost Putin power in Russia? – video explainer
Updated at 10.58 EDT
10.13 EDTWagner group offered abandoned military base in Belarus, Lukashenko says
The Belarusian president, Aleksander Lukashenko says he has offered the Wagner group an abandoned military base in the country.
While Belarus is not yet building camps for the mercenary group, it will accommodate them if they require it, he said.
The Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin flew to Belarus from Russia on Tuesday after a mutiny that has dealt the biggest blow to President Vladimir Putin’s authority since he came to power more than 23 years ago.
Putin initially vowed to crush the mutiny, comparing it to the wartime turmoil that ushered in the revolution of 1917 and then a civil war, but hours later a deal was clinched to allow Prigozhin and some of his fighters to go to Belarus.
Updated at 11.34 EDT
09.55 EDT
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that an older resident of Orikhiv, in Zaporizhzhia region, has been killed by artillery fire.
Updated at 10.09 EDT
09.45 EDTLukashenko confirms that Prigozhin has arrived in Belarus
Alexander Lukashenko appears to have confirmed that the Wagner founder, Yevgeney Prigozhin, has landed in Belarus.
On its Telegram channel the Belta news agency quotes the Belarusian leader saying:
Security guarantees, as he promised yesterday, were provided. I see that Prigozhin was already flying on this plane. Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today.
There were earlier reports that a plane linked to the Wagner leader had landed near Minsk. The Kremlin said earlier it did not know of Prigozhin’s whereabouts. Russia’s security services have dropped any investigation into the weekend’s armed mutiny.
Updated at 11.34 EDT
09.38 EDT
The head of the UN human rights office in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, has spoken about their latest report into human rights abuses in Ukraine, accusing both sides of torture and mistreatment of prisoners.
The report claims that Russian forces carried out widespread and systematic torture of civilians who were detained in connection with its attack on Ukraine, summarily executing dozens of them, and also documents 75 cases of arbitrary detention by Ukrainian security forces, saying a significant proportion of these amounted to enforced disappearances.
The global body interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses for a report detailing more than 900 cases of civilians, including children and elderly people, being arbitrarily detained in the conflict, most of them by Russia. The vast majority of those interviewed said they were tortured and in some cases subjected to sexual violence during detention by Russian forces.
Bogner said: “Torture was used to force victims to confess to helping Ukrainian armed forces, compel them to cooperate with the occupying authorities or intimidate those with pro-Ukrainian views,” AP reports.
Bogner said Ukraine gave UN investigators “unimpeded confidential access” to detainees at official detention centres, with the exception of a group of 87 Russian sailors, adding: “The Russian Federation did not grant us such access, despite our requests.”
Updated at 09.52 EDT
09.21 EDT
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.
Updated at 09.21 EDT
09.12 EDT
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.
Updated at 09.12 EDT
09.09 EDT
Here are some of the images from Moscow earlier as President Vladimir Putin addressed the military.
Vladimir Putin addresses members of Russian military units, the National Guard and security services in Cathedral Square at the Kremlin. Photograph: Sputnik/ReutersRussian police officers on guard close to the Red Square in Moscow. Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/EPAPutin descends a flight of red-carpeted stairs to address the military outside the Kremlin. Photograph: Sputnik/ReutersA member of the National Liberation Movement waves a flag with a portrait of Putin reading For Motherland, for Sovereignty, for Putin outside the Kremlin. Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/EPA
Updated at 09.21 EDT
08.41 EDT
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.
Updated at 09.05 EDT
08.24 EDTWagner soldiers can offer Belarus 'priceless' information on warfare, Lukashenko says
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.
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Niko kwa ndege..40,000 feet.I see countries around Russia sending more n more donations. Look like provocation is not working. Even Germany want send 4000 troops to Latvia. Russia is being lynched boss n China has cowed.Maybe Ramaphosa will send old apartheid weapons. Poor putin.War is about building alliance..Sasa Belarus...while Ukraine has almost 50 countries from Australia to Canada to Bulgaria..