Russian president Vladimir Putin gives first address since mutiny; Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy claims advances ‘in all directions’
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces “advanced in all directions” on Monday following a meeting with his generals. “This is a happy day. I wished the guys [had] more days like this,” he added. His comments come after Ukrainian troops reportedly established a foothold near the Antonovsky bridge on the left bank of the Dnieper and retook the village of Rivnopil.
Zelenskiy also visited two areas along the frontline in eastern and southern Ukraine on Monday. The Ukrainian president handed out awards and posed with troops in video footage posted online, including a to unit heavily involved in holding off a Russian advanced in city Bakhmut. “Thank you for protecting our country, sovereignty, our families, children, Ukraine,” he said.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has met his generals and security officials following the mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner mercenary group. Putin used a Monday night address to accuse Ukraine and its western allies of wanting Russians to “kill each other” and claimed Prigozhin’s uprising was “doomed to fail”, adding that the country showed “unity” in the face of a “treacherous” rebellion. He said he granted amnesty to Wagner fighters so they could either return to their families, be absorbed into the Russian military or go to Belarus. Under an arrangement with the Russian government, Prigozhin has agreed to go into exile in neighbouring Belarus. Putin thanked security officials, including defence minister Sergei Shoigu, who Prigozhin had demanded be removed from his post.
Prigozhin released his first statement since the mutiny in which he denied his forces engaged in an attempted coup. In an 11-minute speech released via Telegram, Prigozhin said he was staging a protest at the treatment of his men and the conduct of the war with a “march for justice”. Wagner forces seized control of the military command in the southern city of Rostov and advanced within 200km of Moscow before pulling back. Prigozhin said his forces had set up artillery south of Moscow but decided that “a demonstration of protest was enough”.
The US has prepared a $500m military aid package for Ukraine. The package will deliver ground vehicles, including Bradley fighting vehicles and Stryker armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine as the country continues its offensive. The announcement follows a pledge by the Australian government to deliver a new $110m military assistance package in the next round of support for Ukraine, including vehicles, ammunition and humanitarian funding.
The defence ministry released footage on Monday that it claimed showed Shoigu “visiting the forward command post of one of the formations of the ‘western’ group of troops”. In the video, Shoigu is shown riding in a vehicle and arriving at a command post, where he listens to reports from officers and pores over a battlefield map. The video was released without sound and it was unclear when and where it was filmed, nonetheless, the footage showed tacit government support for Shoigu.
The aborted Wagner mutiny demonstrates that Moscow committed a strategic mistake by waging war on Ukraine, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday. “The events over the weekend are an internal Russian matter, and yet another demonstration of the big strategic mistake that President Vladimir Putin made with his illegal annexation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine,” he told reporters on a visit to Lithuania’s capital Vilnius.
Events over the weekend show that Russia’s military power is “cracking” and the “monster Putin has created is turning against him”, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs Josep Borrell has said. But he warned the instability in Russia is dangerous for Europe and must be taken into account in the coming days and weeks.
Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda warned that Nato would need to strengthen its eastern flank if Prigozhin is exiled to Belarus. Following a state security council meeting on the mercenary group’s attempt to revolt against Russian military leadership, Nausėda said: “If Prigozhin or part of the Wagner group ends up in Belarus with unclear plans and unclear intentions, it will only mean that we need to further strengthen the security of our eastern borders.”
