The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, ordered this Friday to reinforce the northern border before the arrival in Belarus of the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgueni Prigozhin, and some of his commanders, while the country’s Defense Ministry reported progress in all addresses.
“The decision is that the commander-in-chief, Valeri Zaluzhny, and the commander of ‘Pivnich’ (Group of Northern Forces), Sergei Naev, apply a set of measures to reinforce this direction,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram after a meeting of the State Major of the Supreme Commander in Chief with the military commanders.
He added that the Military Intelligence of Ukraine (GUR), the Foreign Intelligence Service (SZR), the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the State Border Guard Service (DPSU) separately reported the situation in Belarus. “We keep it under constant supervision,” the president said without directly mentioning the transfer of Prigozhin and part of his commanders to Belarus.
Following last weekend’s abortive mutiny in Russia, President Vladimir Putin gave the mercenaries the option of signing contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry, returning home, or going into exile in Belarus.
Naev assured in the Telegram account of the command of the Joint Forces of Ukraine that “currently there is no direct threat” to Ukraine on the northern front.
Russian media such as Vestka reported that Wagner will have one of his bases in the Tsel village, some 200 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, and a large part of his forces have already moved to that place, although the arrival of the fighters continues.
The first Prigozhin militia camp will be able to accommodate some 8,000 fighters, but the construction of more bases is planned, according to the investigative outlet.
The Belarusian president, Alexandr Lukashenko, has denied that camps have been built and has assured that an abandoned military installation will be offered to mercenaries.
“I have many concerns and Wagner is one of them,” Zaluzhni said in an interview with The Washington Post in which the situation on Ukraine’s northern border was addressed in particular.
Meanwhile, according to Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar, the country’s Armed Forces are advancing on all fronts. Thus, on the flanks around the devastated city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces move “confidently” and have “variable successes” in the south.
“Sometimes (advance) a kilometer, sometimes less. And sometimes, it is two kilometers,” said Maliar.
In this sense, Zaluzhny confirmed that his troops “advance every day” and asked not to treat the events at the front as part of a “show”.
“It annoys me when I hear that the expected Ukrainian counteroffensive in the east and south of the country has started slower than expected. My troops are advancing every day, even if only 500 meters. This is not a show,” he said.
He also insisted that without combat aircraft such as the F-16, Ukraine cannot achieve the objectives it has set for itself. “I don’t need 120 planes. (…) A very limited amount would be enough. But they are necessary. There is no other way out,” he said.
Russia officially denies the Ukrainian advances, but some of its officials and military bloggers point to the heavy pressure on Russian troops on the front lines.
The Russian-appointed governor of the southern Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said on Monday that Russian forces had bombarded the area near the Antonivka bridge where Ukrainian troops recently crossed to the left bank of the Dnipro river, occupied by Russian forces, with Iskander missiles. russian.
The well-known group of military bloggers Rybar assured today against that “another attempt to clear the area of ??the town of Dachi with our infantry and equipment failed”, and that “there are dead and wounded on our side”. He maintained that Ukraine had remotely mined the area and that Russian aviation was not able to destroy the beachhead created by Ukrainian troops north of the town of Oleshki either. He assured that at present “the enemy continues to maintain a small foothold on our shore.”
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
