Wagner’s Prigozhin is said to have been buried in St. Petersburg , Russia….
More American military aid to to Ukraine…..
Ukraine drones strike Russian cargo planes in Pskov…
Poland and the three Baltic countries want Belarus to kick out Wagner Troops….
The Pope gets in a bit of trouble with comments about the Ukraine/Russian conflict….
The Ukraine/Russia drone wars continue ….
It appears the US is flying drones out over the Black Sea by Crimea…..
It was also reported way back in the conflict that the US IS flying intelligence flights FOR the Ukraine military in area’s away from the combat zone….
Only 1,400 people out of 11,000 have left the Kupiansk area since regional authorities issued evacuation orders this month, Ukrainian officials say.
Here’s what we’re covering:
-
A resident of Kupiansk dies in Russian shelling, Ukraine says.
-
The fighting around Kupiansk poses strategic dilemmas for both Russia and Ukraine.
-
Prigozhin is buried in a private cemetery in St. Petersburg, his press service says.
-
The White House press secretary draws a closer link to the Kremlin in Prigozhin’s death.
-
The Pentagon announces $250 million more in military hardware and ammunition for Ukraine.
-
A Russian court rejects release for an ultranationalist military blogger, Igor Girkin.
-
The Vatican tries to clarify the pope’s remarks on Russia…..
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
A large fire at a military airfield in Pskov was caused by a drone attack, the region’s governor, Mikhail Vedernikov, said via Telegram on Tuesday. Four Il-76 military transport planes were damaged in the attack, Tass reported, citing emergency responders. Video footage shared on Telegram appeared to show a large fire and massive plumes of dark smoke at the airfield. Vedetnikov said that according to preliminary information, there were no casualties.
The local media outlet MSK1 reported that Prigozhin’s family wished the burial arrangements to be kept secret, quoting a cemetery representative. The Russian news agency Interfax confirmed the burial. The Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not plan to attend the funeral and that it had no details about a possible ceremony.
A Russian state news outlet published new footage of Paul Whelan, the Marine-turned-security-consultant serving a 16-year prison term in Russia. His brother, David Whelan, told a news outlet in Detroit that the video was his first glimpse of Paul since 2020, and that he looked determined and strong.
The video of Whelan, published by Russia Today, appeared to show him eating lunch and completing various tasks around a penal colony while wearing a black uniform. Whelan was arrested in Moscow in late 2018 on espionage charges, which he and the United States deny. The Biden administration has said it is working to secure his release. “It was reassuring to see that he remains, and this is to use his brother’s words, unbowed,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “Russia should release him immediately.”
The funeral for Valeriy Chekalov, a senior Wagner manager in charge of logistics, is taking place in St. Petersburg’s Northern Cemetery, Russian media reported Tuesday.
Poland and the three Baltic countries called on Belarus to expel Russia’s Wagner Group over border security concerns. Wagner fighters led by Prigozhin — until the plane crash last week — moved to Russian ally Belarus as part of an agreement after threatening to march on Moscow in June. Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski made the demand at a news conference attended by his Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian counterparts.
The United Nations said it has recorded 9,511 confirmed civilian deaths in Ukraine since the start of the war in February2022 but noted that its count is incomplete and that “the actual figures are considerably higher.” The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights also said 17,206 people have been confirmed injured in the conflict.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has said it plans to interrogate two U.S. diplomats after charging a former consulate staffer with “cooperation on a confidential basis with a foreign state,” The Washington Post reported. The diplomats were accused of directing the former employee, Robert Shonov — a Russian citizen who worked at the U.S. Consulate in Vladivostok — to gather information about the war in Ukraine.