Ukraine Update…321 days into the Russian move on the Ukraine…Another wave of Russian Rocket’s

Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.

What is the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary company in Ukraine?

• “Every Russian missile against our cities, every Iranian drone used by terrorists is an argument why we need more weapons,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address Thursday. “Only weapons neutralize terrorists.” He praised Ukraine “tank coalition” for sending modern battle tanks, and Canada for joining the group Thursday with the announcement that it would send four German-made Leopards.
• The variant of the American tank going to Ukraine will be the M1A2 Abrams, Pentagon spokesman Sabrina Singh said on Thursday, disclosing for the first time new detail about what kind of tank will be purchased and sent to the government in Kyiv. The M1A2 is more modern than the M1A1 that is still in service, with more advanced electronics and targeting ability, according to U.S. military specifications. The U.S. military owns both versions. Singh, speaking at a news conference, declined to address on Thursday if the United States has declined to send some of the thousands of Abrams tanks in its own arsenal because of classified aspects to its depleted uranium armor. The Pentagon, she said, has no “excess” tanks in its own inventory to provide Ukraine.
• Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Russian tycoon behind the Wagner mercenary group, decried the new U.S. sanctions, calling them illegal. In a statement, Prigozhin said that he alone funded the group and said that he would “spit on” any sanctions, which he said would not impact him. Prigozhin and Wagner have been accused of working to evade sanctions in the past; some U.S. lawmakers feel that Wagner should be designated as a terrorist organization, a label that would carry with it even stronger financial restrictions.

• A strike in Kyiv killed one person and injured two on Thursday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram. The casualties were in the city’s suburban Holosiiv district, he added. In Vinnytsia, regional governor Serhiy Borzov reportedthat “enemy rockets” hit near the central Ukrainian area but that “there are no casualties.” Near the port city of Odessa, Russian missile strikes also damaged two “critical energy infrastructure facilities,” said Yuriy Kruk, head of the region’s military administration. He also reported no casualties. The Post could not independently verify the reports.
• Russia launched “55 air and sea-based missiles” at Ukraine, said Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s armed forces commander, calling it a “massive missile attack.” Ukraine’s air force also said 24 Iranian-made drones were shot down. The Post could not independently verify the claims. “Waves of Russian drones and missiles can’t stop Ukraine’s heroic defenders, its brave people or our determined, unified support,” U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink tweeted in response to the strikes.
• Ukrainian military spokesman Serhiy Cherevaty told The Post on Wednesday that Kyiv’s forces withdrew from Soledar. The Russian mercenary Wagner Group claimed to have captured it. Cherevaty did not say when the withdrawal took place from the salt-mining town, which was home to about 10,000 people before the war, but he said it was done in an “organized manner.” The Post could not independently verify his claims.
• Russia is training troops in neighboring Belarus who are likely to be “recommitted to operations in Ukraine,” according to Britain’s Defense Ministry. “There is a realistic possibility that other Russian units are being rotated into Belarus for similar training, and that Russia will continue this model to regenerate and prepare units to maintain its force in Ukraine,” it said….

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