Ukraine updates: Russia says African states can decide on Wagner

The Kremlin has said Pope Francis’s envoy would hold talks with President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov in Moscow.

Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi began a visit to Russia on Tuesday in the first such trip since Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022.

High-ranking Catholic clerics are rarely seen in Moscow, which no pope has ever visited.

Zuppi’s trip comes several weeks after he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Putin was “weakened” by the Wagner mercenary group’s mutiny but that the ultimate consequences of the rebellion remained unclear.

The weekend uprising – which ended when Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin called off his troops’ advance on Moscow – has prompted questions about Putin’s grip on power as Moscow’s war in Ukraine grinds on.

In his first extensive comments about the aborted rebellion, Scholz said it would “surely have long-term consequences in Russia”.

“I do believe that he [Putin] is weakened,” Scholz told public broadcaster ARD.

“It shows that the autocratic structures, the power structures, have cracks and he in no way sits as firmly in the saddle as he always claims,” the German leader said.

“But I don’t want to take part in speculation about how long he’ll stay in office – it could be a long time or short, we don’t know.”

In a new verbal slip-up, Biden said that Putin was “losing the war in Iraq” when he meant to say “Ukraine”.

Speaking to reporters briefly before departing the White House on a trip to Chicago, Biden was asked if Putin had been weakened by the brief uprising of the Wagner Group whose forces have been fighting against Ukraine.

“It’s hard to tell really. But he’s clearly losing the war in Iraq. He’s losing the war at home and he has become a bit of a pariah around the world. And it’s not just NATO, it’s not just the European Union. It’s Japan, it’s 40 nations,” he said.

Biden says Putin “is clearly losing the war in Iraq” pic.twitter.com/C5PbOAFj7I

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) June 28, 2023

Influential Russian military bloggers have questioned Moscow’s response to the Wagner mutiny, with some praising Putin’s sangfroid and others saying they expected a tougher response.

War correspondent Alexander Sladkov, who has more than a million followers on the messaging app Telegram, said he had expected a furious response from Putin.

“Everyone thought the world will spin five times faster,” he wrote. “Nuclear weapons? General mobilisation? Declaration of war with NATO?”

Sladkov said it took him a day to look back and conclude: “Thankfully, he is cool-headed. Hugely provoked, but in control.”

But some saw the extraordinary march and the Kremlin’s promise not to punish the rebels as a sign of weakness.

“Where is the leadership of the defence ministry when an armed unit is approaching Moscow?” wrote military correspondent Yuri Kotenok. He, however, did not attack Putin personally.

Observers say Yevgeny Prigozhin is “doomed” after turning on Putin, known for vindictiveness towards turncoat allies.

Read more here.

The Wagner Group’s brief mutiny in Russia is a sign of Putin’s “failure” in Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

Blinken said Russian troops were on the outskirts of Kyiv last year and thought they could capture the Ukrainian city in days, but nearly a year and a half into the war, Wagner’s mercenaries were marching on Russia’s own capital, Moscow.

“That, in a way, encapsulates the extent to which this aggression against Ukraine has been a failure across the board for Putin,” Blinken said.

“And we see it by virtually every metric. Russia is worse off economically; it’s worse off militarily; its standing in the world has plummeted.”

The presence of Wagner troops in Belarus could pose a potential “threat” to the countries of the region, Polish President Andrzej Duda has said during a visit to Ukraine.

“It is difficult for us to exclude today that the presence of the Wagner Group in Belarus could pose a potential threat to Poland, which shares a border with Belarus, a threat to Lithuania … as well as potentially to Latvia,” Duda told reporters in Kyiv.

“The question arises: What is the purpose of this relocation? What are the real intentions of the Wagner Group forces, in other words, the Russian army, precisely in Belarus?

“Is it a form of potential threat precisely towards our countries, towards NATO countries, towards Poland?” Duda said.

The Kremlin has said that Russia attacks only military targets, not civilian ones, when asked about a missile attack on a crowded restaurant in Ukraine’s eastern city of Kramatorsk the previous evening.

“The Russian Federation does not strike at civilian infrastructure,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “Strikes are carried out on objects that are connected with military infrastructure in one way or another.”

Later, the defence ministry reported that the target hit in Kramatorsk was a “temporary command post” of the Ukrainian army, but provided no details of the attack.

Leaders of African nations should decide for themselves whether they want to continue working with the Wagner Group, Russia’s foreign ministry has said.

Wagner fighters advanced on Moscow on Saturday, challenging President Vladimir Putin and seeking the dismissal of top military leaders, before making a deal with the Kremlin that saw Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin leave for Belarus.

Biden told reporters that Putin has become “a pariah” around the world but that it is hard to say if he has been weakened by Wagner’s mutiny.

Biden, speaking to reporters at the White House prior to departing on a trip to Chicago, said Putin was clearly losing the war in Ukraine and “he’s losing the war at home, and he has become a bit of a pariah around the world”.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine understood it could not join NATO while war was raging on its soil, but that Kyiv wanted to receive a signal that it can join the military alliance after the war ends.

Reiterating Kyiv’s stance before a NATO summit next month, he said Ukraine also wanted security guarantees for the period until it can join the alliance.

Zelenskyy says some Wagner Group members remain in Ukraine, but that the Ukrainian army believes the situation in the north of the country is under control.

Poland and Lithuania will do everything they can to ensure that Ukraine becomes a member of NATO as soon as possible, Polish President Andrzej Duda has said during a visit to Kyiv.

“We will do everything to make this happen as soon as possible,” Duda told a news conference. “We are trying to ensure that the decisions made at the [NATO] summit clearly indicate the perspective of membership, we are conducting talks on this issue with our allies.”

The Kremlin has dismissed allegations by the UN that Russia had violated children’s rights in Ukraine and said that, on the contrary, its armed forces were rescuing children from conflict zones.

One report accused Russia of detaining more than 800 civilians, some of them children, and of executing 77 civilians since the conflict began in February of last year.

In another report, commissioned by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Russia stands accused of having killed 136 children in 2022.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular briefing that Moscow “firmly rejects” such accusations.

“Our military, repeatedly risking their own lives, took measures to save children, to take them out from under shelling, which, by the way, was carried out by the armed forces of Ukraine against civilian infrastructure,” he said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine would not accept any peace “variant” that allows Russia’s war on his country to become a frozen conflict.

He made his remarks in a speech to parliament on Ukraine’s Constitution Day.

The Lithuanian and Polish presidents are visiting Kyiv to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and show support for Ukraine’s bids to join NATO and the EU before the summits of both bodies.

The presidents will discuss “the NATO summit agenda”, Ukraine’s EU membership negotiations and European support for Ukraine, the office of Lithuania’s Gitanas Nauseda said in a statement.

The office of Poland’s President Andrzej Duda said: “The talks … are related to … the current situation at the front, including the threat of a Russian attack behind the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.”

“Preparations for the July NATO Summit will also be discussed.”

NATO members are close to agreeing to incremental steps to strengthen ties with Ukraine by the Vilnius summit but have yet to resolve differences over how to address Ukraine’s desire for membership.

Switzerland has imposed more sanctions against Russian entities and individuals, in line with the most recent economic restrictions imposed by the European Union on Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine.

Among those targeted are people, companies and organisations that support the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, a statement said.

They also include members of the Russian Armed Forces, leading representatives of state-controlled Russian media and members of the Wagner mercenary group that staged an aborted mutiny last weekend. The sanctions include asset freezes and a ban on travel to and transit through Switzerland.

The Swiss Federal Council has said that it had rejected a request by Swiss defence firm Ruag for the trade of 96 Leopard 1A5 main battle tanks for use in Ukraine.

Such a sale would be contrary to the war material act and would entail an adjustment of Switzerland’s neutrality policy, the cabinet said

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has confirmed the arrival in Moscow of Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the papal envoy for peace, adding that the Kremlin appreciates the efforts of the Vatican to help resolve the Ukraine crisis.

“We highly value the efforts and initiatives of the Vatican and welcome the aspiration of the pope to contribution to ending the armed conflict,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular briefing.

He said the Russian president’s foreign affairs adviser would hold talks with Zuppi at Putin’s request.

The Kremlin has said that it only hits targets in Ukraine that are somehow “linked” to the military, after the attack on a restaurant in Kramatorsk.

“Strikes are only carried out on objects that are in one way or another linked to military infrastructure,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.