Russian Ukraine war latest: Putin ‘paralysed and unable to act’ as Wagner coup unfolded

Vladimir Putin was reportedly left “paralysed” when the Wagner coup started and no orders got that day.

The mercenary group launched its short-lived mutiny on 24 June, driving its forces in the direction of the Kremlin and preaching open riot towards Russia’s army management – solely to desert its mission simply hours later.

Now, safety officers from Ukraine and different components of Europe have spoken out, claiming the Russian president was unable to behave when he first heard the information.

Based on intelligence assessments shared with the Washington Submit, Mr Putin received a warning from Russian safety providers that the chief of the Wagner Group Yevgeniy Prigozhin was presumably planning a riot, two or three days earlier than it started.

A UK parliamentary report has instructed Russia’s financial system is being stored afloat by “important” gold-smuggling operations by the Wagner mercenary group led by its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.

The report by the international affairs committee mentioned that Mr Prigozhin’s Wagner Group is smuggling “important” portions of the dear steel out of Sudan.

The personal army firm (PMC) has been concurrently supporting Sudan’s RSF paramilitary group and its military forces since battle erupted between the army factions in April, the committee mentioned.

The panel has referred to as on Wagner to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation, and mentioned its actions in Sudan had been “primarily” non-combat.

Britain has “underplayed and underestimated” the risk posed by the Russian Wagner mercenary group and may ban it as a terrorist organisation, a robust committee of UK lawmakers have appealed.

The Home of Commons Overseas Affairs Committee mentioned the sanctions imposed by Britain on Wagner are “underwhelming” and UK authorities have performed little to trace the personal military’s actions past Ukraine, the place it has fought as a part of Russia’s invading forces.

“There are critical nationwide safety threats to the UK and its allies of permitting the community to proceed to thrive,” mentioned the committee, whose members come from each governing and opposition events.

It mentioned Britain ought to “urgently proscribe the Wagner Community as a terrorist organisation,” one thing the Conservative authorities has to this point been unwilling to do.

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Trevor Reed, a former US Marine free of a Russian jail final yr, was injured whereas preventing as a global volunteer in Ukraine, based on US officers.

A pair of defence sources told The Messenger that Mr Reed, who got here again to the US in a high-profile prisoner swap in April 2022, stepped on a land mine in Ukraine and was not within the nation performing on behalf of the US authorities in any means.

“Because the starting of the conflict, we have now warned that US residents who journey to Ukraine, particularly with the aim of taking part in preventing there, that they face important dangers, together with the very actual threat of seize or dying,” one of many officers said.

Vladimir Putin was reportedly left “paralysed” when the Wagner coup started and no orders got that day.

Now, safety officers from Ukraine and different components of Europe have spoken out, claiming the Russian president was unable to behave when he first heard the information.

Based on intelligence assessments shared with the Washington Submit, Mr Putin received a warning from Russian safety providers that the chief of the Wagner Group Yevgeniy Prigozhin was presumably planning a riot, two or three days earlier than it started.

European Union agriculture ministers met Tuesday to debate methods of shifting grain important to world meals safety out of Ukraine after Russia halted a deal that allowed the exports. On the identical time, they wish to shield costs for farmers in nations bordering the war-ravaged nation.

The ministers met in Brussels for the primary time since Russia pulled the plug final week on the wartime deal that allowed grain to circulation from Ukraine to nations in Africa, the Center East and Asia, the place starvation is a rising risk and excessive meals costs have pushed extra folks into poverty.

The deal offered ensures that ships wouldn’t be attacked when getting into and leaving Ukrainian ports, whereas a separate settlement facilitated the motion of Russian meals and fertilizer.

Tetiana Khlapova’s hand trembled as she recorded the wreckage of Odesa’s devastated Transfiguration Cathedral on her cellphone and cursed Russia, her fatherland.

Khlapova was raised in Ukraine and had all the time dreamed of residing within the seaside metropolis. However not because the conflict refugee that she has turn out to be.

In solely every week, Russia has fired dozens of missiles and drones on the Odesa area. None struck fairly as deeply because the one which destroyed the cathedral, which stands on the coronary heart of town’s romantic, infamous previous and its deep roots in each Ukrainian and Russian tradition.

“I’m a refugee from Kharkiv. I endured that hell and got here to sunny Odesa, the pearl, the guts of our Ukraine,” mentioned Khlapova, who has lived within the nation for 40 of her 50 years.

Her neck nonetheless has a shrapnel scar from the third day of the conflict, when her condo was hit. On Day 4, she fled to Odesa.

The boss Unilever has insisted that the corporate selected the “least dangerous” choice by staying in Russia days after the patron items large admitted it will permit its Russian workers to combat in Ukraine in the event that they had been referred to as up.

The enterprise, which is behind dozens of manufacturers together with Ben & Jerry’s, Dove cleaning soap and Hellmann’s mayonnaise, was earlier this month named as an “worldwide sponsor of conflict” by Ukraine’s Nationwide Company on Corruption Prevention.

On a name with reporters on Tuesday, chief govt Hein Schumacher mentioned that Unilever was guided by two primary ideas in the way it runs its Russia enterprise.

The Russian prosecutor-general’s workplace on Tuesday declared unbiased TV channel Dozhd to be an undesirable group, persevering with the nation’s extensive crackdown on information media and teams thought to be threats to Russia’s safety.

The designation outlaws Dozhd from working in Russia and exposes its journalists, workers and donors to potential prison costs.

Dozhd, which is usually important of the Kremlin, closed its operations in Russia quickly after the start of the Ukraine battle, shifting first to Latvia after which to the Netherlands. The prosecutor-general’s workplace mentioned Dozhd had unfold extremist materials and discredited authorities.