Wagner’s false alarm, more drones in Crimea and a risk at a nuclear plant

First modification: 05/07/2023 – 18:55

“We have been promised as much ammunition and weapons as we need to continue operations. We have been promised that everything necessary will be deployed to prevent the enemy from cutting off our supplies,” the founder of the Wagner Group declared in a message on his Telegram group, on Sunday, May 7.

This text shows the positive response of the Russian military to the challenging videos that Yevgeney Prigozhin had published a few days ago complaining about the lack of ammunition and assuring that the group would withdraw from Bakhmut.

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Now, in a very different vein, on Telegram, Prigozhin mentions that Russian General Sergei Surovikin will make “all decisions regarding Wagner’s military operations in cooperation with the Russian Ministry of Defense”, since, under his consideration “it is the only person with general stars who knows how to fight”.

Wagner’s boss underlines the role of Surovikin in a context of internal division in the Russian ranks. In the past, he has shown discomfort with decisions made by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and by the commander of the Russian army in the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine, Valeri Gerasimov, who replaced Surovikin in January.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for the command of the Ukrainian east, Serihy Cherevaty, commented to the Reuters agency that the lack of ammunition is an unreal situation and would only be a “justification for the defeats” of Wagner in Ukraine.

“Four hundred and eighty-nine artillery hits in the last 24 hours around Bakhmut, is that a lack of ammunition?” Cherevaty said.

The fighting in the city of Bakhmut has been one of the most intense in the entire conflict, however, the confrontations continue on different fronts in Ukrainian territory, within the framework of the possible counteroffensive by the Ukrainian government.

The war continues in other areas as well.

The governor of the southern city of Kherson, Oleksandr Prokudin, mentioned that six people have died in the last 24 hours as a result of the constant Russian attacks on the city.

On the side of the effects for the Russians, in the last two weeks there have been reports of explosions and drone attacks in the Crimean peninsula, controlled by Moscow since it was annexed to its jurisdiction in 2014.

kyiv has not directly claimed responsibility for these attacks, although it has ruled on the matter.

On Russian territory, the country’s defense minister mentioned Sunday that his air forces had shot down 22 Ukrainian drones in the Black Sea on Saturday night.

And what about nuclear safety?

Tensions between the two fronts are at a high point and some international institutions continue to show their concern for the security of vital infrastructure such as nuclear plants on Ukrainian territory.

For example, the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, warned the international community about the dangers that the conflict represents to the Zaporizhia nuclear plant, the largest in Europe.

“The general situation in the area near the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant is increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous,” Grossi said on Saturday, after the provincial government ordered the evacuation of civilians with Russian passports out of multiple nearby settlements. to the plant.

In addition, he added that the members of the organization in charge of monitoring the security situation of the plant on a daily basis “continue to hear bombardments regularly”, which causes tension in the work of safeguarding the facilities.

With Reuters, AP and local media