Major media coverage of the Wagner chief, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, demise….
The Russian’s say his death is confirmed….(Some will remain skeptical)….
Mouring for one of three Ukraine pilots that ran into each other in a midair collision during a combat run…
A Russian missile shoot down enroute to Kyiv….
Ukraine sends drones into Russia in want is becomin g a daily occurance of the drone wars…
The Ukraine IS talking to the US , UK and Canada about post conflict security agreements….
Russian investigators said genetic tests showed that the Wagner chief, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, who led a brief mutiny against Moscow’s military leadership, was among the victims of a plane crash last week.
Here’s what we’re covering:
-
Investigators said genetic testing showed the dead match the names on the flight log.
-
Russia says Ukraine launched more drones at border regions.
-
In Moscow, mourners cry at a makeshift Wagner memorial.
-
Prigozhin spent some of his last days in Africa.
-
Ukraine is still grappling with the battlefield Prigozhin left behind…..
…
Wagner Group Future?….
U.S. and Western officials say that the Kremlin is considering ways to bring Wagner under more direct control of the Russian state but hasn’t made any final decisions on what to do with the group.
It is unlikely that Russia wants to squander the trained fighters, geopolitical inroads and business interests that Mr. Prigozhin cultivated since Wagner’s founding in 2014. His outfit has operated in at least 10 countries.
But finding a way to neutralize an armed organization that posed one of the biggest threats to Mr. Putin’s tenure in 23 years, while also retaining its fighting power and global links, is a difficult task, particularly given the longstanding enmity between fighters with the private military company and the leadership of the Russian Defense Ministry.
“I think that PMC Wagner, in itself, as a structure, most likely won’t exist,” Aleksandr Borodai, a member of the Russian Parliament who briefly served as a Moscow-installed proxy leader in Donetsk, Ukraine, in 2014, said in a phone interview…
…
None of those Wagner commanders has appeared in public or issued a statement since the crash, despite repeated promises of a coming announcement on Wagner-affiliated Telegram channels. It is unclear whether those commanders would have the Russian political capital to spearhead the larger Wagner operation, as other elites probably begin circling Mr. Prigozhin’s more lucrative assets.
At a makeshift sidewalk memorial to the fallen Wagner leaders near Red Square in Moscow, fighters who went to pay their respects said they were sure that the private military company would continue operating….
…
A trio of Wagner soldiers in camouflage who visited the makeshift memorial in Moscow insisted that Wagner was not going to be disbanded.
“We are all standing by, we have not betrayed anyone, we have not abandoned anyone, and we will stand to the last,” said one of the soldiers, who gave his call sign as Prapor, short for Ensign.
When asked if he would switch contracts from Wagner to the Russian Defense Ministry, Prapor did not answer.
“We have one contract,” he said. “And that is a contract with the motherland.”….
….
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
DNA testing during the investigation into the plane crash established “the identities of all 10 victims,” the committee said in a statement. Russian aviation authorities previously confirmed that Prigozhin — along with two of his close associates, Valeriy Chekalov and Dmitry Utkin — were listed as passengers on the Embraer business jet, which went down in the Tver region of western Russia.
It’s unclear whether Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Wagner chief to be assassinated, Hill said, but “there are plenty of people who were painting a target on Prigozhin’s back.” She specialized in European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019 and now works at the Brookings Institution. She said the Russian military wanted retribution for his mutiny. “The system itself expected him to be taken out of the picture in some fashion,” Hill said in an interview that was broadcast Sunday on “Face the Nation.”
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he had warned Prigozhin about his safety at least twice, Belarusian state news agency BelTA reported. Lukashenko claimed he had told Prigozhinthat he could guarantee his “full security” by speaking with Putin and extracting him to Belarus, but that the mercenary group leader never took up his offer, BelTA reported Friday.
Evidence does not suggest that a simple mechanical problem or human error caused the plane crash, aviation experts told The Washington Post, though they said there is not enough information available to draw a definitive conclusion. Early assessments by U.S. officials suggested the possibility of an onboard explosion. President Biden told reporters that the United States is trying to pinpoint the cause of the crash and added on Friday that he was not at liberty to speak to it yet.
Three Ukrainian pilots were killed in a midair collision during a combat mission Friday, government authorities said. The two L-39 combat training aircraft collided near Zhytomyr, according to the Ukrainian air force. One of the pilots killed, who had the call sign “Juice,” had described to The Post in April 2022 how Ukrainian fliers were fending off Russian invaders.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said an investigation was underway to determine the cause of the collision. Zelensky in his overnight address expressed his condolences to the family and friends of the pilots. Yuri Ihnat, spokesman for Ukraine’s Air Force, said Sunday that it was not clear how long the investigation would take, according to the Associated Press.
The Ukrainian Defense Department shared a video of a memorial for the pilots on Sunday. In it, a man plays a piano that a service member later lights on fire.
Ukrainian officials claimed to have thwarted an attempted Russian attack overnight on Ukraine’s capital. The civil-military administration of Kyiv said cruise missiles fired in the area of the Caspian Sea and “moving in the direction of Kyiv” were destroyed by air defenses overnight without causing any damage or injuries in the capital. Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said Sunday that “all intended targets were struck” in an overnight “strike from precision-guided long-range air-launched weapons” against an airfield in the Kyiv region. It was not immediately clear whether the two events were the same, and The Post could not independently verify the assertions.
Russia’s Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of targeting two border regions with drones overnight. The ministry said air defenses downed two drones over the Bryansk and Kursk regions, on Russia’s western border with Ukraine. The Post could not independently verify the claims.
Four more military officers in Ukraine have been detained as part of a corruption investigation, Ukraine’s Security Service said on Telegram. The four individuals are accused of helping people evade the draft in exchange for money.
Ukraine has been negotiating with the United States, United Kingdom and Canada to secure security guarantees from the Western powers, Zelensky said. “We have started negotiations with Canada on a bilateral document on security guarantees. Earlier we started with the United States and the United Kingdom,” Zelensky said late Saturday. “This will give Ukraine much more opportunities. I am grateful to each and every person who works for this!”
Journalist Evan Gershkovich has appealed a Moscow court’s decision to extend his detention through November, according to Russian state news agency Tass. Gershkovich is being held before trial on espionage charges that both the U.S. government and the Wall Street Journal, his employer, say are baseless.
Prigozhin is confirmed dead. What happened to Putin’s other rivals?: Some of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foes, among them journalists and opposition politicians, have died or fallen ill in suspicious circumstances after opposing the Kremlin leader.
In the latest case, on Aug. 23, Yevgeniy Prigozhin — the head of the guns-for-hire Wagner Group and Putin’s longtime ally turned foe — was killed, along with the three crew members and six other passengers on board, when a private jet flying north of Moscow crashed.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denied speculation of Kremlin involvement as “all lies.” In June, Prigozhin led a short-lived rebellionagainst Russia’s top military leadership, prompting wider concerns that Putin would ultimately punish him for the mutiny.
Other foes, Victoria Bisset and Miriam Berger report, have been poisoned, shot or imprisoned….