Russian police have arrested a former Wagner mercenary on suspicion of murdering two people, Sibir. Realii, a regional media outlet for Russia’s Radio Free Europe service, reported.
The bodies of a 68-year-old woman and her 35-year-old daughter were discovered the night after a fire in an area of the village of Ermakovskoye, Krasnoyarsk, southern Russia.
This is the first criminal case against a former soldier of the Wagner group.
In August, the BBC found that 20 suspects of serious crimes, in addition to rape and murder, were Wagner’s recruits.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected a New York Times report that Russia was preparing to test an experimental nuclear-powered cruise missile, or that it had recently tested one.
Today we report how Ukrainian special forces destroyed a column of trucks and combat cars in Zaporizhzhia.
Now we can provide you with a video of the attack in which the device hit by artillery fire, generating several explosions.
Explanation: Heavy fighting has raged around Robotyne, Verbove and Tokmak on the southern front, as Ukraine attempts to breach Russian fortifications and advance south towards the coast.
Armenia’s parliament has voted to register with the International Criminal Court (ICC), a move that will further strain ties with Russia.
The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, according to which all countries under its jurisdiction will be obliged to arrest him if he sets foot on their territory.
Armenian officials claimed that the move had nothing to do with Russia and was motivated by what they called Azerbaijan’s aggression against the country.
But the Kremlin reacted angrily, saying Moscow, Armenia, a best friend, had acted as a non-partner.
Tensions had already risen after Russia failed to interfere when Azerbaijan introduced a military offensive in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The territory, which belongs to Azerbaijan, has a majority Armenian population.
Azerbaijan took Nagorno-Karabakh by force last month and tens of thousands fled.
The two had been locked in a frozen standoff since Armenia won the war against Azerbaijan in 1994, after which the Kremlin acted as an intermediary for peace.
Russia is Armenia’s best friend, the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, and maintains a military presence in the country.
Thanks to constitutional amendments enacted by Vladimir Putin in 2021, he can now remain president for two more consecutive terms, until 2036.
Then he will be 83 years old. These amendments to the letter were passed without discussion in a national referendum in 2020, as Russia grappleed with COVID.
Although this replacement and a number of other vital modifications, such as the primacy of Russian law over foreign law, were put to a popular vote, the new charter was already published before the referendum.
With respect to the office of president, any long-term president would likely serve only two consecutive six-year terms.
Conveniently, since Putin had already completed four years of service, his record was “reset” so that he could start from scratch in the next elections, which will be held next year.
No wonder who wins. The Kremlin spokesman said a few weeks ago that Russia “theoretically” has little appetite for holding presidential elections, given that Putin would clearly be re-elected with what he believed was 90% of the vote.
However, given the catastrophic nature of the war in Ukraine and the fact that Putin’s political survival is likely to depend on its outcome, the next thirteen years may not be as transparent as the Kremlin hopes.
And, of course, if it’s still in place in 2036, there’s also a chance we’ll see new constitutional twists if you need to keep the more sensible ones a little longer.
Click here to ask and read the answers above. . .
As a debate unfolds in the United States about where aid should continue to be sent to Ukraine, it is worth remembering how important this aid has been to the country’s war effort.
As of July 31, the United States had provided the most military aid of all allies, at £36. 6 billion, more than the 10 most sensible donors combined, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Without the help of the US military, Ukraine would lack ammunition for operations on the ground and devices used to prevent Russian attacks, experts told AFP.
“The Ukrainian military would weaken and eventually collapse,” and “could just remain on the defensive,” said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
But Moscow may not take advantage of such a situation, due to the exhaustion of its own military, he told AFP.
Eliminating the American air defense generation would also downgrade the entire formula because they are tightly integrated, according to James Black, deputy director of RAND Europe’s defense and security group.
He believes it would take “years and decades of effort” to fill the remaining military vacuum in the United States.
Ukrainian special forces destroyed a column of combat vehicles in Zaporizhzhia, according to the country’s General Staff.
Aerial reconnaissance detected five infantry cars and two trucks in a forest area, before artillery attacked the targets.
Scouts from groups called “Rabid Panda” and “Saint” followed the column through a village in Tokmak district for a fortnight, Ukrainian news agency RIA Melitopol reported.
Heavy fighting has raged around Robotyne, Verbove and Tokmak on the southern front, as Ukraine tries to break through Russian fortifications and advance south towards the coast.
Russia reportedly has no plans to mobilize more troops for now.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the army already had troops, according to the official RIA news agency.
In the last hour (see our message of 9:38), we reported that Ukraine has noticed a reduction in the duration of groups of people called from certain regions of Russia.
Regular readers of the blog will recall that Poland announced last month that it would approve new weapons for Ukraine.
It based its resolution on considerations about its own arsenals, and it is not the only country where positions on the reduction of the war fund are being debated.
“After two years, now we have to have another discussion because we can’t give, give, give and see how our systems fail for Ukraine,” Gen. Stéphane Mille, head of France’s air force and space, told reporters.
“We cannot continue to donate with our own actions,” an EU official told the outlet, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“We give away everything that jeopardizes our own safety. “
European stocks are drying up, but cooperative responses are available, a Biden administration official added.
Financing and joint production of weapons to allow Kiev to manufacture its own weapons systems are two paths that Volodymyr Zelensky follows with his allies.
Deals have already been made with the United States to produce its air defenses and General Mille told Politico that France would “of course” fund Ukrainian systems.
Ukraine has a “significant decrease” in the number of troops mobilized in some regions of Russia, Ukrinform reports.
Pavlo Kovalchuk, spokesman for the Ukrainian army general staff, attributed the situation to “a stable accumulation of casualties” among Russian personnel.
He cited the Russian city of Izhevsk, from where teams of between 20 and 30 people were called to the occupied territories last month, and between 100 and 120 people in past mobilizations.