According to Russian news firm Tass, seven Russian servicemen who were once prisoners “escaped with firearms from an army unit” in Soledar, Ukraine.
Three of the infantrymen were captured by Russian forces after being trapped drinking in a café in the occupied eastern city of Luhansk, he added.
“Another defector shot dead through the fugitives themselves, while seeking to surrender,” the outlet reported.
Two men have reportedly been arrested and searches are underway for the soldier.
Russia began recruiting men on its criminal formula last year amid staffing problems, and the Wagner mercenary organization had recruited tens of thousands of war convicts.
The organization finally denied access to recruitment in prisons earlier this year, as the Russian Defense Ministry began absorbing convicted fighters.
It may seem irrelevant to this blog, however, in Turkey, other people go to the polls to their president, and his election is very controlled around the world.
Turkey’s current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in power for two decades, is opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
While the end results may replace Turkey’s future, they may also have a massive impact on the war in Ukraine.
Here, our International Affairs Editor, Dominic Waghorn, explains why. . .
President Erdogan’s favorite Vladimir Putin in this election. A fact difficult to digest for its NATO allies who will have expected, albeit privately, a change.
Erdogan’s authoritarian regime, economic eccentricity and misguided NATO have provoked the development of fear among allies.
His defeat would have been greeted as a sign of things to come, the humiliation of a populist strongman with others to follow.
Those hopes have been deflated. With its position strengthening before the time of those elections, there is bound to be sadness in the West.
Erdogan’s rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, is not well known outside Turkey, but for Western politicians he had been a tonic for the frictions and frustrations generated by Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
An accountant and bureaucrat with a reputation as a white, secular politician who wants to mend Turkey’s Western relations and accept them for real with NATO allies. What can’t you enjoy about the foreign ministries of Europe and Washington?
Compare this to Erdogan. The guy who by protecting his country’s EU club is taking Turkey in another unpredictable direction.
Erdogan is the Kremlin’s choice, Satan Putin has come to know and find help even though their relationship is completely transactional. He talked about his special relationship with Vladimir Putin and the mutual need of the two countries.
It refuses to subscribe to Western sanctions that oppose Russia. It has purchased Russian air defense systems, which has caused collusion throughout the NATO alliance.
Turkey’s ambivalence has been in this clash in the West.
Ankara played a key role in negotiating the deal allowing the shipment of Ukrainian grain. And that will play a role in negotiations to end the war when they finally take place.
Visit our Türkiye blog to learn more. . .
By Jess Sharp, Live Reporter
As we previously reported, Vladimir Putin has ordered increased security at the Russian border.
The Russian president said the move was aimed at ensuring a “rapid” movement of the army and civilians in Ukrainian regions now under Moscow’s control.
But the resolution came after an increasing number of attacks on the country, especially in the border regions of Belgorod and Kursk.
So what does it mean for security and what might it look like?
According to Sky News army analyst Sean Bell, Russia will have to concentrate all its military resources on the next Ukrainian counteroffensive, and Putin is reluctant to order a new wave of mobilization due to the threat of internal unrest.
By strengthening border security, he must present the war as a risk to Russian national security even though he started the war by invading Ukraine, Bell says.
Ukrainian and anti-government attacks have undermined Russia’s sense of security, and Putin is keen to show he is “in charge,” he adds.
He suspects that increased border security will come with dummy hardware to provide visual deterrence to any attacker.
The reservoir can simply be used, Bell says, but Putin’s precedence will be the front line, and his goal will be to scare the local population into helping by offering labor.
Russia can simply also its measures of physical cover by fortifying the border, digging trenches and building fences.
All of those measures will aim to offer visual signs that Putin is “protecting his people,” even though it was his invasion of Ukraine that sparked the war, Bell says.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on the Ukrainian parliament to impose sanctions against Iran for 50 years, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Citing a draft resolution, Ukrainian media said the call includes a total ban on Iranian trade, investment and generation transfers, as well as a ban on the withdrawal of Iranian assets from Ukraine.
Ukraine’s parliament will have to approve the bill for it to become law, but parliament has not yet scheduled a vote.
Iran has Russia with military hardware and has already been sanctioned through the United States and the European Union for supplying drones to the country.
A security source in the past told Sky News that Iran secretly provided gigantic amounts of bullets, rockets and mortar shells to Russia.
You can our full survey below. . .
Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk was booed on the Roland Garros tennis court after refusing to shake hands with her Belarusian opponent after losing in the first round.
Kostyuk, who has been one of the Ukrainian players who has spoken the most about the sport’s reaction to the Russian invasion, has avoided any eye contact with Aryna Sabalenka after the match.
He walked straight towards the chair umpire, while Sabalenka walked towards the net as if waiting for some kind of exchange.
The Roland Garros crowd booed and whistled her as she entered the locker room.
Kostyuk has not shaken hands with any opponent of Russia or Belarus since his country invaded through Russia, with the help of Belarus, last year.
One user died after Russia introduced 19 movements in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine’s national police said.
The attacks destroyed a total of 30 houses, as well as a factory, several cars and the city’s network of forces.
The authority said other people were injured, but did not say how many.
Russia used operational systems of Iskander tactical missiles, mortars, tanks and artillery from the attack, he added.
Within 24 hours, Moscow claimed to have shot down two British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.
The Storm Shadows are long-diversity air-launched cruise missiles developed through British Aerospace and a French company, which bring a traditional 450 kg warhead over a diversity of up to two hundred miles (300 km).
They are designed to attack static and fortified targets very deeply.
We know that they used it for the first time in Ukraine on May 8.
But does Russia really have the capability to bring them down, and what effect could that have?
Our Army analyst, Sean Bell, says, “When Russia says those things, we never know what the fact is about it.
“They claimed to have shot down two of those Storm Shadow missiles. They’re very easy to follow, but you know, who knows?
“The Russians claimed that they also shot down two HIMARS missile systems, which, again, is very difficult to track.
“However, some of that may be from the data operation. “
He explains that Ukraine turned out to have figured out how to shoot down Russia’s Khinzal hypersonic missile, which Putin said was invincible, and that Moscow would have been “very picky about it. “
“The truth is that we don’t know the fact of this, but the only key we know is that the West’s source of wise weapons for Ukraine gives it an asymmetric advantage,” he added.
At least 206,600 Russian infantrymen have been killed since the war began, adding up to 400 “eliminated” yesterday, according to Ukraine.
In its update on Russian losses, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said it also destroyed 3,797 tanks and 2,993 drones.
Sky News has not been able to independently determine those figures and Russia does not publish updates on its fighting losses.
Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been mocked for months.
Initially set as an operation that would take position in spring, the long-awaited attack has not yet begun.
In recent days we have noticed symptoms that it would possibly be underway imminently.
The commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces released a clever propaganda video, talking about the determination and readiness of Kiev’s troops, hinting that it could start soon.
Meanwhile, one of the country’s most sensible security officials told BBC News that Ukraine is in a position to start the operation.
In the video below, Sky’s army analyst, retired RAF Marshal Ed Stringer, examines whether Ukraine can simply launch its counter-offensive. . .