Ukraine Update…492 days into the Russian move on Ukraine…Waiting…..

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

• Ukrainian troops have been outshot tenfold at times because of limited resources, Zaluzhny claimed in the interview, adding that he relays his concerns to his American counterpart, Gen. Mark A. Milley, several times per week in conversations that can last hours. Zaluzhny also expressed frustration that Ukraine has not yet received modern fighter jets. American-made F-16s, promised only recently, are not likely to arrive until the fall at the earliest.
• A satellite image captured Friday provides the first clear picture of the rapid construction of a camp to house thousands at an abandoned base in Belarus. Local media reports and expert analysis on the timing of the sudden construction suggests the camp could have been built for incoming Wagner forces after their mutiny and subsequent withdrawal from Russia. The Washington Post was unable to independently verify the reports, and others cautioned about jumping to conclusions about the purpose of the camp.
• The Russian agency in charge of information control and Internet restrictions, Roskomnadzor, said on Friday that it had blocked all media websites controlled by Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin. On Saturday, when Prigozhin launched the Wagner rebellion, Roskomnadzor announced it had blocked several websites in Russia “to prevent the spread of calls to join the armed mutiny,” including Wagner’s VKontakte social media account and other pages associated with the group, at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office. The restrictions placed on Friday were a telling sign of the Kremlin’s determination to curb Prigozhin’s future activities, even though insurgency charges against him were dropped in a deal with Putin, when Prigozhin agreed to exile in Belarus.
• Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg met in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and members of a new group looking into the environmental consequences of war. They discussed the impact of the attack on the Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power plant earlier this month, as well as issues related to the “destructive impact of Russian aggression on nature,” Zelensky said in his nightly address Thursday.
• Pope Francis called the Russia-Ukraine conflict a “war that seems to have no end,” speaking to a delegation from the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, following a papal envoy’s three days of talks in Moscow.
• Ukraine’s military is monitoring the situation in Belarus and strengthening Ukrainian defenses in the north, Zelensky said Friday. Yevgeniy Prigozhin, head of the mercenary Wagner Group, arrived in Belarus this week after attempting a short-lived rebellion in Russia. It is not clear how many fighters from his group could join him in Belarus, but there are concerns that Prigozhin could now be in a position to attack Ukraine from the north.
• Former U.S. vice president Mike Pence visited Kyiv and met with Zelensky on Thursday, in a surprise trip that highlighted the Republican divide over Washington’s assistance to Ukraine. “We need to make sure that we provide the Ukrainian military what they need to push back on and defeat Russian aggression here,” Pence told reporters. He is the only Republican presidential candidate to have visited Ukraine.
• Following Wagner’s recent rebellion, speculation has swirled around the whereabouts of Russian Gen. Sergei Surovikin, The Washington Post reported. Surovikin, a commander of the Russian aerospace forces, had good relations with Wagner boss Prigozhin and has not been seen publicly since Saturday. The Financial Times reported that he has been detained, citing anonymous Russian elites and Western officials. But Alexey Melnikov, secretary of the Public Monitoring Committee in Russia, said Surovikin is not in any temporary detention facilities, Russian state media reported.

• Ukrainian forces appear to have used internationally banned, hand-size antipersonnel land mines in Russian-occupied areas in eastern Ukraine, according to evidence published by Human Rights Watch. Their use is in violation of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, to which Ukraine is a signatory. The small size and innocuous appearance of the mines can lead to children or other civilians handling them unknowingly and cause indiscriminate harm.
• Ukraine’s armed forces said they hit the Russian military headquarters in Berdyansk, a Russian-occupied city in the Zaporizhzhia region. A fuel and lubricants warehouse there was also hit, according to a statement Friday. The claim was denied by Russian-backed official Vladimir Rogov, who said Russian air defenses repelled a Ukrainian missile attack.
• Russia is reducing its presence at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate said Friday. It said employees of Russia’s state-run nuclear company Rosatom have left, Ukrainian employees have been told to evacuate, and Russian military patrols have decreased in the area. The claims could not be independently verified by The Washington Post. Last week, Zelensky said Russia was preparing a “terrorist act” at the plant. Russia has denied the claims and on Thursday sent a letter to the United Nations stating it has no intention of blowing up the plant, state media reported.
• “Some elements of the Wagner Group” remain in Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine after the rebellionover the weekend, a Pentagon spokesman, Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, said at a news conference. Ryder declined to provide numbers.

• Former president Donald Trump says Putin is “somewhat weakened” by the Wagner rebellion.Speaking in an interview with the Reuters news agency, Trump said, “I want people to stop dying over this ridiculous war,” adding that Kyiv may have to concede some territory to bring it to an end. The 2024 Republican presidential candidate, who spoke privately with Putin several times during his presidency, said if he were back in the White House, everything would be “subject to negotiation.”
• Hungary opposes European Union plans to send more money to Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Friday. “One thing is clear, we Hungarians … will not give more money to Ukraine until they say where the previous around 70 billion euros worth of funds had gone,” he said. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Orban has been balancing his pro-Putin sympathies with being a member of the European Union, The Post previously reported.
• A delegation from the Vatican traveled to Moscow to meet with Russian officials as part of Pope Francis’s efforts to reach “a much-wished-for peace,” the Vatican’s envoy to Moscow, Giovanni D’Aniello, said Thursday. While the talks did not lead to an agreement, the sides agreed to continue dialogue, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state media.

Ukraine’s top general, Valery Zaluzhny, wants shells, planes and patience: For Ukraine’s counteroffensive to progress faster, Kyiv needs more of every type of weapon, Zaluzhny told The Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan.

In a rare, wide-ranging interview, the Ukrainian armed forces commander also expressed frustration that Ukraine still has not received modern fighter jets but is expected to rapidly take back territory from the occupying Russians…..

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