Tag: unrest

Kramatorsk restaurant strike shows that in Ukraine, death can come any time, anywhere | CNN

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CNN
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It was dinner time and the restaurant – a popular pizza joint in the center of Kramatorsk – was crammed with people. Just after 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, a Russian missile ripped through, killing at least 11 people. For millions across the country, the strike was yet another reminder of the horrifying reality of life in Ukraine.

Authorities said three teenagers, including a 17-year-old girl and 14-year-old twin sisters Yulia and Anna Aksenchenko, were among those killed in the strike. At least 61 people, including a baby, were injured in the attack, State Emergency Services said, warning the toll could increase in the coming hours.

The strike – the deadliest attack against civilians in months – came just as Russia emerged from a major crisis sparked by a short-lived uprising led by the head of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin. Prigozhin arrived in Belarus on Tuesday, after staging what was the biggest ever challenge to the authority of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

Rescue workers are still searching the rubble, after having to temporarily pause the work late Tuesday night because of another air raid alarm.

The people of Kramatorsk are no strangers to Russian attacks. The eastern Ukrainian city lies about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the front line, according to the Institute for the Study of War’s assessments of the current situation on the ground.

But despite the proximity to the fighting, Kramatorsk remains a busy city. The area around Ria Lounge, the restaurant that was struck, is a particularly popular spot with a busy post office, a jewelery store, a cafe and a pharmacy all within a stone’s throw from Ria. One of Kramatorsk’s biggest supermarkets is just down the road.

Being so near the fighting, the city is popular with soldiers seeking some respite from the fighting.

A Ukrainian soldier assisting rescue efforts told CNN that the victims he saw were “mostly young people, military and civilians; there are small children.”

The soldier, who asked to be identified only by his call sign Alex, said there had been a banquet for 45 people at one of the restaurants when the strike occurred, and that it hit “right in the center of the cafe.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack a “manifestation of terror.”

“Each such manifestation of terror proves over and over again to us and to the whole world that Russia deserves only one thing as a result of everything it has done – defeat and a tribunal, fair and legal trials against all Russian murderers and terrorists,” he said.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Dontesk region military administration, said the strike used Iskanders – high-precision, short-range ballistic missiles.

EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell echoed Zelensky’s words on Wednesday. “In another demonstration of the terror Russia is imposing on Ukrainian civilians, a Russian cruise missile hit a restaurant and shopping centre in Kramatorsk,” Borrell said in a post on Twitter.

Kramatorsk, has been the target of frequent shelling since the war between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014. The city was briefly occupied by separatists in 2014, but has remained under Ukrainian control since then.

The Ukrainian Security Service alleged on Wednesday that the attack was premeditated, saying that it had detained a man who allegedly scouted the restaurant and sent a video to the Russian Armed Forces prior to the strike Tuesday.

The man was described by the Ukrainians as a “Russian intelligence agent” and an “adjuster.”

“To execute the enemy’s instructions, the GRU agent took a covert video recording of the establishment and vehicles parked nearby. Then the suspect forwarded the footage to Russian military intelligence,” the service said in a statement on Telegram.

“Having received this information, Russian invaders fired on the cafe with people inside,” it added.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Wednesday that the target of the missile strike in Kramatorsk was “a temporary command post” of a Ukrainian army unit.

Separately, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that Russia “does not strike at civilian infrastructure” and the strikes are carried out “only on objects that are connected with military infrastructure.”

The frequency and intensity of the attacks increased after Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine in February 2022. One attack in particular sparked international outrage and led to accusations of Russia deliberately targeting civilians.

In April last year, Russian forces carried out a missile strike on Kramatorsk’s railway station which was being used to shelter civilians fleeing the fighting.

More than 50 people, including several children, died in that one attack, which was called “an apparent war crime” by Human Rights Watch and SITU Research.

According to their report, several hundred civilians were waiting at the station when “a ballistic missile equipped with a cluster munition warhead exploded and released dozens of bomblets, or submunitions.”

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June 28, 2023
Biden is turning the screw on Putin even as US denies role in Russia’s insurrection | CNN Politics

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CNN
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Russia’s short-lived insurrection has handed Joe Biden the most perilous version yet of a dilemma that has confounded the last five US presidents: how to handle Vladimir Putin.

Every US commander in chief since Bill Clinton has sought in some way to engage the former KGB officer, whose mission to restore Russian greatness was ignited by his humiliation at the fall of the former Soviet Union. Most have sought some kind of reset of US-Russia relations. But all failed to avert the plunge in ties between the two nuclear superpowers.

Ex-President George W. Bush looked into Putin’s eyes and got “a sense” of his soul, only for Putin to invade Georgia on his watch. Barack Obama initially saw the Russian leader as a partner in a drive to end the threat of nuclear Armageddon. That didn’t stop Putin from annexing Crimea in 2014. And Donald Trump adopted a fawning approach to an autocrat and US foe he often seemed to want to emulate more than condemn.

Biden, who came of age in Washington as a senator during some of the most embittered years of the US-Soviet standoff in the 1970s and 1980s, had fewer illusions about Putin than most. But even he tried to break the chill, by meeting his counterpart at a summit in Geneva in 2021.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however, led him instead to reinvigorate the NATO alliance with an extraordinary pipeline of arms and ammunition designed to ensure the country’s survival. Western support has not only enabled Ukraine to fight back against invading forces, it has helped turn the war into a quagmire that spiked political pressure on Putin and created battlefield conditions that likely helped lead to mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s revolt over the weekend.

Putin appeared on camera on Monday, defiantly warning that he would have had no trouble suppressing the uprising had the Wagner Group leader not chosen to halt his march on Moscow in a deal that ostensibly will see him exiled to Belarus.

But there was widespread agreement outside Russia that the showdown represented the most serious challenge to Putin’s grip on power during his generation in control and could even be a crack that spells the beginning of the end of his authority.

So Biden, therefore, faces a possibility that none of the predecessors who wrestled with Putin had to contemplate – that he is dealing with the endgame of this modern czar, and the prospect of instability rocking a nuclear superpower that could have global implications.

During the chaos that engulfed Russia this weekend, the US and its allies made clear that the eventually aborted showdown between Putin and Prigozhin was an internal Russian affair. After Moscow opened a propaganda front on Monday by claiming it was probing whether Western intelligence was involved in the coup attempt, Biden went out of his way to dismiss the idea, discussing how he had consulted with Western leaders on the right approach.

“They agreed with me that we had to make sure we gave Putin no excuse. Let me emphasize, we gave Putin no excuse to blame this on the West or to blame this on NATO. We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it,” the president told reporters.

CNN reported Monday that the US had warning of Prigozhin’s intentions in advance, but only shared it with select senior officials and allies, including the British. The revelation appeared to be the latest indication that the US is getting high-grade, accurate intelligence from inside Russia, as it appears to have done for the last year. This in itself must be deeply irksome to Putin and may deepen his bunker mentality.

Biden’s comments, meanwhile, also reflected the odd dichotomy of his strategy toward Putin. While sending Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky billions of dollars in arms and ammunition to fight for his country’s survival, Biden has simultaneously insisted that the US is not involved in a showdown with Russia, doing everything he can to avoid a direct clash between NATO and Russian forces that could risk a world war-style escalation.

But the red lines have been constantly expanding. The stocks of ammunition, heavy artillery, Patriot anti-missile missiles and tanks that have been flowing into Ukraine would have been considered unthinkable when Putin ordered his troops over the border last February.

Still, Biden’s insistence that there was no US involvement in the weekend rebellion is almost certainly a statement of fact. The US has no dog in a fight between a warlord like Prigozhin, whose guns for hire are accused of a catalog of atrocities in Ukraine and Syria, and a Russian leader who is the subject of an arrest warrant for war crimes.

Moscow’s claims that the West was complicit in the uprising come across as a diversion from splits threatening to erode Putin’s rule. They appear designed to convince Russians to unite against an outside enemy. Putin has repeatedly styled the war in Ukraine as a struggle against what he sees as a Western effort to deny Russia its rightful status as a global power. This is a distraction from the fact he sent his troops into Ukraine in contravention of international law, sparking a conflict that has exposed the supposedly mighty Russian army as poorly led and equipped – a shell of the Red Army that upheld the Soviet Empire.

While the US and its allies took care not to show triumphalism while Prigozhin’s rebellion was taking place, Western governments are now seeking to capitalize on it politically, as they try to build pressure on Putin inside Russia.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken argued on America’s Sunday talk shows that while the US was not involved in the rebellion, it showed cracks in Putin’s power. This was a refrain taken up in Europe on Monday.

“Prigozhin’s rebellion is an unprecedented challenge to President Putin’s authority, and it is clear that cracks are emerging in the Russian support for the war,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said. European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell adopted a similar line, after several days of consultation between top officials in the Western alliance. He said events show Russia’s military power “is cracking,” adding that the instability is also “affecting [Russia’s] political system.”

Some experienced American observers have warned that it is far too soon to write Putin off.

“This struck me as a desperation by Prigozhin to somehow keep the Wagner Group in operation. I don’t see it as a populist threat to Putin, I don’t see it as cracking the aura of Putin’s invincibility,” former Trump national security adviser John Bolton told CNN Monday, though he did allow that Putin’s military position is “undeniably” weakened.

Putin has shown no sign that outside heat from Moscow’s foes will force him to retreat and bring his troops home. Indeed, his position may be so vulnerable that doing so without gains he could pass off publicly as a victory could pose an existential threat to his leadership. This explains why thousands of Russian troops have been sent into a “meat grinder” of a conflict, as Prigozhin called the battle in Bakhmut, that has shattered Russian prestige and worsened its strategic position in Europe.

But with the war going poorly in Ukraine, Putin is now facing a new political front at home after his personality cult of an all-powerful autocrat impervious to challenge was punctured by Prigozhin.

Unless the Russian leader can reestablish his authority, Biden may end up being the first 21st century American president who ends up outmaneuvering the strongman in the Kremlin.

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June 26, 2023
Russia is wracked by mutiny and mistakes. Ukraine will seek to take advantage | CNN

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Kyiv
CNN
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Seismic shifts in Moscow must surely spell similar earthquakes along the front lines in Ukraine. But as of Monday, that’s yet to happen.

Ukraine’s forces have announced slight changes along the southern front during the weekend and more sustained progress around the largely symbolic city of Bakhmut – where thousands of Wagner fighters likely died over the winter.

On Monday morning, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Mailar said Ukrainian troops had retaken Rivnopil in Donetsk region, which might suggest greater progress in the south. But there has been no Russian collapse, despite that appearing a major possibility in Moscow during a large part of Saturday, as mutinous Wagner forces threatened to march on the Russian capital.

Disruption to Russia’s presence around Bakhmut is a more likely outcome from the weekend’s turmoil, where some Wagner fighters may retain a presence but where Ukraine has already been advancing.

Separately, Russian state media reported that 3,000 Chechen fighters had been moved to Moscow to assist in its defense, and it is likely that at least one unit heralded from the hotly contested town of Mariinka. Chechen fighters are often thought to stay back from the very front line, but their absence even in the reserve will be felt.

There will undoubtedly have been some changes to Russia’s military positioning as a result of Wagner’s failed insurrection.

The group appears to have prepared their rebellion for some time and the units used will hence not have been suddenly withdrawn from the trenches last week. But the Russian military may have panicked at seeing mercenaries advance on Moscow and sent help.

This all provides opportunities that Russia’s enemies must seize carefully.

Ukraine and its NATO allies will urgently be trying to assess what and where they are, and whether they provide a material advantage to their counteroffensive. But this is not something you would seek to rush or get wrong.

The sudden application of a bulk of Ukraine’s forces to exploit Russian weaknesses is something Kyiv will doubtless have been patiently waiting for and weighing the merits of for weeks.

Ukrainian leaders won’t want to rush into their own mistake just when Russia is making a lot of its own. It also takes time to relocate hundreds or thousands of soldiers, and perhaps even longer to soften the ground ahead for an assault.

But the weekend’s events have left an indelible mark on the Kremlin’s chances of success in the war. And there are three different ways this can assist Ukraine.

Firstly, there must have been a radical impact on Russian military morale.

Troops in the trenches are often denied access to smartphones to not betray their locations or other sensitive data to Ukrainian spies. But slowly the news of the failed insurrection will filter down. And it will be a shock that the most prominent military figure in Russia, perhaps the only one with the temerity to rail publicly against the Russian top brass’s conduct of the war and supply shortages across the military, took up arms to solve the situation.

Secondly, there is the visible weakness of the commander in chief.

President Vladimir Putin fell silent as the insurrection began; then he declared Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin “scum” using “terrorist methods” who must face “inevitable punishment”; then his spokesman announced a deal in which Prigozhin would vanish to Belarus and everything would be forgiven.

Putin – as of late afternoon in Moscow on Monday – had yet to be seen in public since this apparent deal was struck, with the Kremlin bizarrely releasing a pre-recorded video of the president discussing a youth forum. It is a picture of vacillation and absence, and these are not things a wartime leader can project. The weekend has damaged this leader’s ability to lead, and that will help Kyiv, even if it takes months to manifest itself in battlefield chaos.

And finally, Ukraine’s counteroffensive has always been about pushing Russia to make difficult choices on the battlefield – to grind Russian defenses down until a concerted Ukrainian push using its reserves can break through.

Would this happen in Bakhmut, or the long southern front, or the further reaches of the western or northern frontlines?

Given the anecdotal reports of Putin’s micromanagement of this war, it is likely the larger calls about where to hold and where to run would have involved him, or at the very least his top brass. They are all now caught in the greatest internal crisis Russia has seen since the fall of the Soviet Union. So their already bad decision making will likely get worse.

This is the moment in which Ukraine will likely reap the most benefits, in forcing a strategic error from Moscow at a time when they are – to say the least – distracted. It is also possible that Kyiv and its allies are still assessing the weekend and are anxious not to move until they have a clearer picture of the fallout.

Is Putin’s position going to worsen yet still? Might an earthquake on the battlefield inadvertently rally Moscow’s elite around him, to stave of an existential defeat for Russia as a nation in Ukraine? The risk of unintended consequences are very real during what Putin called “turmoil.” He invoked the ghost of Russia’s withdrawal from the First Word War in 1917, as revolutionary forces would swallow Russia for almost a century.

Napoleon said never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake. Moscow’s mistakes have been so plentiful over the past months, at some point Ukraine will likely seize the initiative. The impact of that could create a crisis for Russia that would make the weekend seem petty.

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June 26, 2023
Victims’ families, united in grief, face 2 paths to justice as Pittsburgh synagogue shooting death penalty trial moves to next phase | CNN

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CNN
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Federal jurors in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial will soon decide whether to sentence the convicted gunman to death or life in prison – two potential avenues for justice that in the years since the deadliest antisemitic attack in US history have found varying levels of support in an otherwise unified community.

As expected, shooter Robert Bowers was found guilty this month of all 63 counts he faced stemming from the Sabbath morning massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue that left 11 worshipers dead as three congregations gathered to pray. Eleven counts of obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs resulting in death and 11 counts of use and discharge of a firearm to commit murder during a crime of violence were capital counts, making Bowers eligible for the death penalty.

The 50-year-old shooter’s attorneys never contested he committed the 2018 attack, and the case’s main focus is the issue now at hand: whether he is sentenced to death – still an option amid a federal moratorium on carrying out executions – or life in prison without the possibility of parole. For a death sentence to be handed down, the jury must be unanimous.

But even in a community united – not only its grief but in its hope justice will be done – unanimity around the death penalty is elusive: In the years since the massacre, the victims’ families and congregations have expressed differing views about whether the shooter should be put to death. Some are convinced so egregious an attack warrants capital punishment, while others fear a death sentence could retraumatize their community or a life sentence would better honor the victims, they’ve said.

The divergence reflects a broader national split on capital punishment. Recent high-profile cases, too, have shown juries don’t always send mass killers to death row, with the gunman who killed 17 people at a Parkland, Florida, high school and the terrorist who killed eight on a New York City bike path sentenced to life in prison after their juries declined to unanimously opt for death.

Most of the families of those killed at the Pittsburgh synagogue want the shooter sentenced to die, according to a letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle published in November and signed by seven of the nine families whose relatives were murdered.

“We are not a ruthless, uncompassionate people; we, as a persecuted people, understand when there is a time for compassion and when there is a time to stand up and say enough is enough – such violent hatred will not be tolerated on this earth,” reads the letter written to counter unspecified opinion pieces opposing the US Justice Department’s decision to seek a death sentence.

“Please don’t tell us how we should feel, what is best for us, what will comfort us and what will bring closure for the victims’ families. You can not and will not speak for us,” it reads. “The massacre of our loved ones was a clear violation of American law – mass murder of Jews for simply being Jewish and practicing Judaism, driven by sheer antisemitism – which the law rightfully deems is a capital offense.”

Others have offered a different view. The targeted Dor Hadash Congregation previously voiced its opposition to the death penalty in this case, as did the rabbi of New Light Congregation, who narrowly escaped the shooting in which his faith community lost three worshipers. CNN reached out to Rabbi Jonathan Perlman for comment on his prior position.

“I would like the Pittsburgh killer to be incarcerated for the rest of his life without parole,” Perlman wrote in an August 2019 letter to then-Attorney General William Barr before the decision to seek a death sentence was made. “He should meditate on whether taking action on some white separatist fantasy against the Jewish people was really worth it. Let him live with it forever.”

Perlman’s focus, he wrote, was “not letting this thug cause my community any further pain.”

“We are still attending to our wounds, both physical and emotional, and I don’t want to see them reopened any more. Many of us are healing but many of us (have) been re-traumatized multiple times,” Perlman said. “A drawn out and difficult death penalty trial would be a disaster with witnesses and attorneys dredging up horrifying drama and giving this killer the media attention he does not deserve.”

While the Torah “unambiguously” allows for capital punishment, rabbis in the first and second centuries were hesitant to support its implementation, said David Kraemer, professor of Talmud and rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

They feared the flaws of a human court system out of concern innocents could be inadvertently punished, he told CNN. Those rabbis believed it best to err on the side of letting a guilty person go free in part because they believed the guilty would receive an appropriate punishment after death.

“I think the reason they were comfortable with that is because they believed that there was a divine court,” Kraemer said, “that would correct the error that the human court may have made.”

The Justice Department under Barr, an appointee of Republican President Donald Trump, initially chose to try the Pittsburgh shooting as a capital case, even as the US government at that time had not executed a federal death row inmate in almost 20 years. That changed in the Trump administration’s waning days, when 13 federal inmates were put to death over six months ending in January 2021.

The Dor Hadash Congregation lamented the Barr-era decision, writing afterward in late August 2019 it was “saddened and disappointed” the agency chose to push forward with a capital case, despite a letter the congregation said it had sent that same month asking both sides to agree to a plea deal giving the gunman life in prison without parole.

“A deal would have honored the memory of Dor Hadash congregant Dr. Jerry Rabinowitz, who was firmly and unequivocally opposed to the death penalty,” its statement read. “It would have prevented the attacker from getting the attention and publicity that will inevitably come with a trial, and eliminated any possibility of further trauma that could result from a trial and protracted appeals.”

The congregation did not feel commenting on the death penalty was appropriate now that the trial has moved on from the guilt phase, its spokesperson told CNN. “We remain very grateful to the Department of Justice and the US Attorney’s office for their work in this matter over the course of the past 4 1/2 years,” Pamina Ewing of Dor Hadash said.

Then in July 2021 – a day after he issued a moratorium on federal executions – Democratic President Joe Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland was sent a letter from seven of the nine families of those slain in the Pittsburgh synagogue attack, urging him to continue to pursue a death sentence in the case, according to Diane and Michele Rosenthal, the sisters of victims David and Cecil Rosenthal.

The letter said the “vast majority of the immediate victim-family members” had not wavered in their desire for the death penalty. “As such, we respectfully beseech you to uphold the prior DOJ decision on the death-penalty qualification of this Capital Murder case and permit it to proceed as originally decided.”

The letter aimed to “reflect … our support in seeking the death penalty in this particular tragedy,” the sisters told reporters in April, weeks before the trial began. They spoke only for their own family, they said, adding the other signatories had agreed to let them share the letter.

The Justice Department under Garland is prosecuting the case, making it the second federal death penalty trial in the era of Biden, who’d campaigned on a promise to abolish the punishment at the federal level but has taken few substantive steps toward doing so.

Since his appointment two years ago, Garland has not authorized the department to seek the death penalty in any new cases, a Justice Department spokesman said, and he continues to assess new requests for authorization to seek or withdraw the death penalty on a case-by-case basis, consistent with federal law and the Justice Manual.

Americans overall remain divided nearly down the middle on the death penalty, as they have been for years following precipitous drops in support for it over recent decades. About 55% of Americans say they are in favor of the death penalty for convicted murderers, a split that’s been relatively unchanged for at least six consecutive years, polling from Gallup shows.

And like in Pittsburgh – where community members have supported each other before the trial and during it – victims of violent crime and their families are no monolith. While some express opposition to capital punishment, others look to it for some semblance of closure or justice.

The Pittsburgh synagogue “massacre was not just a mass murder of innocent citizens during the service in a house of worship. It was an antisemitic hate crime,” Diane Rosenthal said in April. “The death penalty must apply to vindicate justice and to offer some measure of deterrence from horrific hate crimes happening again and again.”

“We don’t want to be here,” she said, “and we know the emotional toll this trial potentially brings. But we owe it to our brothers, Cecil and David.”

Added Michele Rosenthal: “The suggestions published or reported that family members be relieved of the stress of a trial or that a cost-benefit analysis dictates a plea are offensive to our family,” she said. “Our family has suffered long and hard over the last four and a half years. … We don’t want to have to continue to defend ourselves and our position.

“We want justice.”

Beyond the families, many simply are bracing for the Pittsburgh synagogue trial’s penalty phase and how it may impact those touched by the wider ripples of the attack. After the gunman’s conviction, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh opted to “take no position on what justice is,” its president and CEO told reporters.

“We trust the justice process,” Brian Schreiber said.

Whatever comes of the penalty phase, it will be “gut wrenching,” and “reopen wounds,” said Jeff Finkelstein, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.

“They keep getting reopened for us here in our Pittsburgh community,” he said, “not just the Jewish community but this greater Pittsburgh region.”

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June 26, 2023
Russia pulls back from brink of crisis after deal reached to end Wagner insurrection | CNN

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CNN
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In the end, the uprising was short-lived. But for a brief and chaotic 36 hours, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power appeared to be under serious threat, as thousands of Wagner fighters led by warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin closed in on the country’s capital.

With the private mercenary group claiming to have seized key military sites in two Russian cities, the Kremlin was forced to deploy heavily armed troops to the streets of Moscow and warn residents to stay indoors.

But the face-off never came.

On Saturday, the Kremlin said a deal had been reached to end the insurrection, with Prigozhin heading to neighboring Belarus and Wagner fighters turning back from their march.

“Now is the moment when blood can be shed,” Prigozhin warned on Saturday. “Therefore, realizing all the responsibility for the fact that Russian blood will be shed from one of the sides, we turn our columns around and leave in the opposite direction to the field camps according to the plan.”

Wagner fighters will face no legal action, and the Kremlin has “always respected (Wagner’s) heroic deeds,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

“You will ask me what will happen to Prigozhin personally? The criminal case will be dropped against him. He himself will go to Belarus,” Peskov said, adding that the situation had been resolved “without further losses.”

The abrupt about-face follows a rare, remarkable challenge to the Kremlin that threatened to plunge the country into crisis and destabilize its already stumbling war efforts in Ukraine.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a staunch Kremlin ally, condemned Prighozhin’s actions and said, “bloodshed could have happened.”

“The arrogance of one person could lead to such dangerous consequences and draw a large number of people into the conflict,” he added.

The threat of civil war leaves the country – and the Putin regime – in a very different place Sunday than it had been just two days prior. And with Russia possessing the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, that instability has other nations on edge, prompting emergency meetings and high-level talks.

Putin has built a reputation as an autocrat with an iron grip on power since he became president in 2000 – with his reign second in length only to Joseph Stalin, the Communist leader whose image Putin has tried to rehabilitate.

The mysterious deaths of Putin critics over the years, and more recent critics of the Ukraine war, has only bolstered the Kremlin’s veneer of total control and the consequences for those who step out of line.

That has now been shaken badly by the Wagner insurrection – with experts warning Putin may be more exposed than he has been in the last 23 years.

“Putin is clearly weakened. There is blood in the water,” said Evelyn Farkas, executive director of the US-based think tank McCain Institute. She added that this near-crisis could be seen as an opportunity for Putin critics or rivals within the Kremlin.

Some international observers have expressed surprise at what they view as a lackluster Russian response to the insurrection, with the lack of a rapid, cohesive strategy highlighting the military’s weakened capabilities.

Putin will also have to contend with shaky public sentiment within Russia. Civilian support for the war in Ukraine remains high, but cracks had begun to show by early this year, with some Russians tuning out the propaganda on air and others finding ways to circumvent Internet restrictions.

In the months since, the war has arrived on Russian soil as Ukraine launched its counteroffensive. Russia’s Belgorod region saw a cross-border attack by anti-Putin Russian nationals in May, while the Kremlin itself came under alleged drone attacks.

The emerging split between Moscow and some of its civilians was on clear display Saturday, as Prigozhin and his forces prepared to depart the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, where they had briefly occupied a key military facility. A video verified and geolocated by CNN show Prigozhin’s vehicle stopping as a resident approached to shake the Wagner boss’ hand; around them, residents cheer.

In pictures: Russian President Vladimir Putin

The location adds to the moment’s significance: Rostov-on-Don is an important regional capital with logistical and strategic value, housing the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District.

“All of this is spilling out into the Russian heartland,” said retired US Army Brig. Gen. Peter Zwack on Saturday.

Beth Sanner, former deputy director of National Intelligence for Mission Integration, said the incident could see Putin “double down on repression in Russia” in a bid to wrest back control – as well as step up its fighting in Ukraine, in the face of international scrutiny.

“He has been humiliated,” Sanner said. “He’s going to try to reassert (his strength) … Putin will not just stand there and allow all of this to flourish and blossom.”

The insurrection has also turned a spotlight to Russia’s nuclear capabilities and what might push Putin to use them – questions that have loomed over the war in Ukraine ever since it began.

Putin has repeatedly engaged in nuclear saber-rattling, announcing earlier this year that it would store tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, one of Moscow’s closest allies, which helped launch the initial invasion of Ukraine. The first of those weapons arrived this month.

On Saturday, two US officials told CNN that they had not seen any change to Russia’s nuclear posture since the insurrection started.

A State Department spokesperson added that the US has “no reason to adjust our conventional or nuclear force posture,” and that it has “long-standing, established communication channels with Russia on nuclear issues.”

But those channels are now significantly narrower than before. Earlier this year, Russia suspended participation in its only nuclear arms control treaty with the US – meaning the two nations are no longer required to share information like the location of certain missiles and launchers.

US intelligence officials had anticipated last year that there was an internal power struggle between the Wagner group and the Russian government, as the invasion of Ukraine stalled, according to top US officials.

They even saw signs that Prigozhin was making preparations for a major challenge, including by amassing weapons and ammunition, said one Western intelligence official and another person familiar with the intelligence.

But they didn’t anticipate Prigozhin would storm the Rostov region – and the insurrection unfolded so quickly that it caught US and European officials off guard, sources say.

US officials convened emergency meetings on Friday night to assess the events, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with counterparts from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, and the European Union on Saturday.

The leader of the US, United Kingdom, France and Germany also spoke on Saturday, before Wagner pulled back from its advance, according to Downing Street.

Countries near Russia are also on guard, with the president of former Soviet state Kazakhstan scheduling an emergency meeting of his Security Council on Sunday. The council will form a plan to contain any “possible negative consequences” of the insurrection that could impact Kazakh citizens or the economy, said the presidential office.

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June 25, 2023
Moscow has stepped back from civil war with Wagner. But the danger’s not over, experts warn | CNN

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CNN
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Within a remarkable day and a half, Russia faced the very real threat of an armed insurrection, with President Vladimir Putin vowing to punish Wagner fighters marching toward Moscow and occupying cities along the way – before a sudden deal with Belarus seemed to defuse the crisis as rapidly as it emerged.

But much remains uncertain, with experts warning the rare uprising isn’t likely to disappear so quickly without consequences down the line.

Putin must now navigate the aftermath of the most serious challenge to his authority since he came to power in 2000, following a series of dizzying events that was closely – and nervously – watched by the world and cheered by Ukraine.

Outspoken Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin is being sent to Belarus, apparently unscathed, but he may have painted a target on his own back like never before.

Here’s what we know.

Prigozhin, the bombastic head of the Wagner group, agreed to leave Russia for neighboring Belarus on Saturday, in a deal apparently brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

The deal includes Prigozhin pulling back his troops from their march toward the capital, said a Kremlin spokesperson on Saturday.

The criminal charges against him will be dropped, said the spokesperson. Wagner fighters will face no legal action for their part in the insurrection, and will instead sign contracts with Russia’s Ministry of Defense – a move Prigozhin had previously rejected as an attempt to bring his paramilitary force in line.

Wagner troops previously claimed they had seized key military facilities in two Russian cities; by Saturday, videos authenticated and geolocated by CNN showed Prigozhin and his forces withdrawing from one of those cities, Rostov-on-Don.

It’s not clear where Prigozhin is now. The Kremlin is unaware of his whereabouts, the spokesperson said Saturday.

The crisis in Russia erupted Friday when Prigozhin accused Russia’s military of attacking a Wagner camp and killing his men – and vowed to retaliate by force.

Prigozhin then led his troops into Rostov-on-Don and claimed to have taken control of key military facilities in the Voronezh region, where there was an apparent clash between Wagner units and Russian forces.

Prigozhin claimed it wasn’t a coup but a “march of justice.” But that did little to appease Moscow, with a top security official calling Prigozhin’s actions a “staged coup d’état,” according to Russian state media.

Russia’s Defense Ministry denied attacking Wagner’s troops, and Russia’s internal security force opened a criminal case against Prigozhin.

Then came a remarkable national address from Putin.

In a speech that was broadcast across Russia on Saturday morning local time, a visibly furious Putin vowed to punish those “on a path to treason.”

Wagner’s “betrayal” was a “stab in the back of our country and our people,” he said, likening the group’s actions to the 1917 Russian Revolution that toppled Tsar Nicholas II in the midst of WWI.

Things were tense on the ground, with civilians in Voronezh told to stay home. Meanwhile, Moscow stepped up its security measures across the capital, declaring Monday a non-workday. Photos show Russian forces in body armor and wielding automatic weapons near a highway outside Moscow.

All signs pointed to an impending armed confrontation in the capital as rumors and uncertainty swirled.

Then almost as suddenly as it began, the short-lived mutiny fizzled out with the Belarus deal seeming putting out the fire – at least for now.

Much remains unclear, such as what will happen to Prigozhin’s role within Wagner and the Ukraine war, and whether all his fighters will be contracted to Russia’s military.

The Kremlin spokesperson said on Saturday he “cannot answer” what position Prigozhin will take in Belarus. Prigozhin himself has provided little detail about his agreement to halt the advance on Moscow.

The Wagner group is “an independent fighting company” with different conditions than the Russian military, said retired US Army Maj. Mike Lyons on Saturday. For instance, Wagner fighters are better fed than the military – meaning a full assimilation would be difficult.

“Maybe some will splinter off,” he added. “Those people are loyal to the man, Prigozhin, not to the country, not to the mission. I think we’ve got a lot more questions that are not answered right now.”

Chaos in Russia: A throwback to previous centuries?

The danger isn’t over for the Wagner boss, either, experts say.

“Putin doesn’t forgive traitors. Even if Putin says, ‘Prigozhin, you go to Belarus,’ he is still a traitor and I think Putin will never forgive that,” said Jill Dougherty, CNN’s former Moscow bureau chief and a longstanding expert on Russian affairs.

It’s possible we could see Prigozhin “get killed in Belarus,” she added – but it’s a tough dilemma for Moscow because as long as Prigozhin “has some type of support, he is a threat, regardless of where he is.”

Putin now faces real problems, too.

Multiple experts told CNN that while the Russian president survived the stand-off, he now looks weak – not only to the world and his enemies, but to his own people and military. That could pose a risk if there are skeptics or rivals within Moscow who see an opportunity to undermine Putin’s position.

“If I were Putin, I would be worried about those people on the streets of Rostov cheering the Wagner people as they leave,” said Dougherty.

One video, geolocated and verified by CNN, showed crowds cheering as Prigozhin’s vehicle departed Rostov-on-Don. The vehicle stopped when one individual approached and shook Prigozhin’s hand.

“Why are average Russians on the street cheering people who just tried to carry out a coup?” Dougherty said. “That means that maybe they support them or they like them. Whatever it is, it’s really bad news for Putin.”

Video shows Prigozhin leaving Russian military headquarters

Prigozhin has known Putin since the 1990s, and was nicknamed “Putin’s chef” after winning lucrative catering contracts with the Kremlin. But Russian-backed separatist movements in Ukraine in 2014 set the foundation for Prigozhin’s transformation into a warlord.

Prigozhin founded Wagner to be a shadowy mercenary outfit that fought both in eastern Ukraine and, increasingly, for Russian-backed causes around the world.

Wagner was thrust into the spotlight during the Ukraine war, with the fighters appearing to win tangible progress where regular Russian troops failed. However, its brutal tactics are believed to have caused high numbers of casualties.

As the war dragged on, Prigozhin and Russia’s military leadership have engaged in a public feud, with the Wagner boss accusing the military of not giving his forces ammunition and bemoaning the lack of battlefield successes by regular military units.

He was repeatedly critical of their handling of the conflict, casting himself as ruthless and competent in comparison.

Prigozhin was always careful to direct his blame towards Russia’s military leadership, not Putin, and had defended the reasoning for the war in Ukraine.

That was, until Friday as the insurrection kicked off.

In a remarkable statement, Prigozhin said Moscow invaded Ukraine under false pretenses devised by the Russian Ministry of Defense, and that Russia was actually losing ground on the battlefield.

Steve Hall, a former CIA chief of Russia operations, said even seasoned Russia watchers were taken aback by recent events.

“Everybody is scratching their heads,” he told CNN. “The only sense I can make from a day like today, you have two guys who found themselves in untenable situations and had to find their way out.”

Hall said Prigozhin may have felt he had bitten off more than he could chew as his column of troops marched towards Moscow. But at the same time Putin faced the very real prospect of having to defeat some 25,000 Wagner mercenaries.

Sending Prigozhin to Belarus was a face saving move for both sides.

But Hall said Putin comes out ultimately worse off and weakened.

“Putin should have seen it coming literally months ago. We’ll see how it ends up. I don’t think the story is over yet,” Hall said.

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June 24, 2023
Wagner chief to leave Russia for Belarus in deal that ends armed insurrection | CNN

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CNN
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Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner paramilitary group, has agreed to leave Russia for Belarus, the Kremlin said Saturday, in a deal that ends an armed insurrection, which posed the greatest threat to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority in decades.

In a conference call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said an agreement was struck with Prigozhin, referring to an apparent deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

“You will ask me what will happen to Prigozhin personally?” Peskov said. “The criminal case will be dropped against him. He himself will go to Belarus.”

The Wagner boss had earlier turned his troops around “toward our field camps, in accordance with the plan.” Peskov said those troops would face no “legal action” for marching to Moscow, and Wagner fighters will sign contracts with Russia’s Ministry of Defense.

The announcement defuses a crisis that began when Wagner troops took control of a key military facility in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and some fighters advanced towards the capital.

Prigozhin has been publicly critical of Russia’s military leadership and their handling of the war in Ukraine – with few consequences. But he crossed numerous red lines with Putin over the weekend.

A somber-looking Russian president addressed the nation and called Wagner’s actions “a stab in the back of our country and our people.”

The president described events as an insurrection and Moscow began to scale up its security measures.

But by Saturday evening, Prigozhin’s calculus appeared to have changed, and the mercenary said his troops, who were 124 miles (200 kilometers) from Moscow, were stopping their advance in order to avoid bloodshed.

Videos, authenticated and geolocated by CNN, also showed Prigozhin and Wagner forces withdrawing from their positions at Russian military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don.

In the video, Prigozhin is seen sitting in the backseat of a vehicle. Crowds cheer and the vehicle comes to a stop as an individual approaches it and shakes Prigozhin’s hand.

Saturday’s dramatic events come off the back of Prigozhin’s very public and months-long feud with Russia’s military leadership. He has previously accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov of not giving his forces ammunition and was critical of their handling of the conflict, but has always defended the reasoning for the war.

On Friday, Prigozhin accused Russian forces of striking a Wagner military camp and killing “a huge amount” of his fighters – a claim Russia’s Ministry of Defense has denied and called an “informational provocation.”

The private military chief seemingly built influence with Putin over the course of the conflict, with his Wagner forces taking a leading role in the labored but ultimately successful assault on Bakhmut earlier this year. The capture of that city was a rare Russian gain in Ukraine in recent months, boosting Prigozhin’s profile further.

But it appears that Prigozhin had turned not merely against the military leadership’s handling of the invasion of Ukraine, but also against the longtime Russian leader and his strategy.

On Friday, he said Moscow invaded Ukraine under false pretenses devised by the Russian Ministry of Defense, and that Russia is actually losing ground on the battlefield.

“There are 25,000 of us and we are going to find out why there is such chaos in the country. There are 25,000 of us waiting as a tactical reserve and a strategic reserve. It’s the whole army and the whole country, everyone who wants to, join us. We must end this debacle,” he said on Telegram.

Wagner upped the gambit and went on to take control of military facilities in Rostov-on-Don and Voronezh, a city that lies some 600 kilometers (372 miles) to the north of Rostov. Russia’s domestic intelligence service, FSB, opened a criminal case against Prighozhin for his threats, accusing him of calling for “an armed rebellion.”

Wagner troops were then reported to be moving towards the capital, prompting a major security operation in the Moscow region and a counter-terrorist regime being put in place, according to Russian officials.

Russian security forces in body armor and equipped with automatic weapons took a position near a highway linking Moscow with southern Russia, according to photos published by Russian media. Monday was declared a non-working day and public and other large-scale events have been suspended until July 1 in the Moscow region, according to Russian state run media TASS.

During his speech Saturday, Putin said Wagner’s “betrayal” and “any actions that fracture our unity,” are “a stab in the back of our country and our people.”

Responding to Putin’s speech, Prigozhin said on Telegram that the president was “deeply mistaken.”

“We are patriots of our Motherland, we fought and are fighting,” he said in audio messages.The Wagner chief claimed his forces seized the Russian Southern Military Headquarters in the city of Rostov-on-Don “without firing a single shot,” suggesting that “the country supports us.”

The Rostov base plays a key role in Russia’s war on Ukraine, due to its proximity to the countries’ shared border.

The temperature cooled following the deal apparently brokered by Belarus’ leader. Yet Prighozhin has provided scant details about his agreement to about-face.

When asked what position Prigozhin would take in Belarus, Peskov said he “cannot answer the question.” Peskov said Lukashenko was able to draw on a personal relationship with Prigozhin to broker the deal.

“The fact is that Alexander Grigoryevich [Lukashenko] has known Prigozhin personally for a long time, for about 20 years,” he said. “And it was his personal proposal, which was agreed with Putin. We are grateful to the President of Belarus for these efforts.”

Many top Russian officials had rallied to Putin’s side over the past day. Russian intelligence official, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseev, posted a video about Prigozhin’s actions that day, describing it as a coup attempt.

Sergei Naryshkin, who heads Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, described the events as an “attempted armed rebellion.”

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, another key player in the war, spoke of a “vile betrayal” by Prigozhin on Telegram. “The rebellion must be crushed, and if this requires harsh measures, then we are ready!” he said.

Russian officials said detachments of Chechen special forces had been seen in Rostov to suppress the rebellion. However, CNN was unable to independently confirm that Chechen units have arrived in Rostov.

The FSB also responded on Friday, urging Wagner fighters to detain their leader and opening a criminal case against the militia boss accusing him of “calling for an armed rebellion.”

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine stalled earlier this year, top US officials said they saw indications of tensions between the Kremlin and the Prigozhin. Officials said the US determined as early as January there was an internal power struggle underway and have been gathering and closely monitoring intelligence on the volatile dynamic ever since.

But US and Western officials are being careful not to weigh in on the events because of how Putin could weaponize any perceived outside involvement in the escalating crisis, sources familiar with the administration’s thinking told CNN.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has warned Western countries against using Prigozhin’s rebellion “to achieve Russophobic goals.”

The European Union, which borders Russia, has activated its crisis response center to coordinate between member nations in reaction to the developments in Russia.

Meanwhile, Ukraine took advantage of Russia’s chaotic security situation on Saturday, launching simultaneous counter-offensives in multiple directions, Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy Defense Minister, said in a Telegram post.

“The eastern grouping of troops today launched an offensive in several directions at the same time,” Maliar said, naming Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Bakhmut, Bohdanivka, Yahidne, Klishchiivka and Kurdyumivka among the places where the offensive was launched.

Maliar said that “there is progress in all directions” without giving any further detail. Maliar said that “heavy fighting continues in all directions of the offensive in the south.” In the South “the enemy is on the defensive, making great efforts to stop our offensive actions,” Maliar added.

A spokesperson for the Ukrainian military in eastern Ukraine earlier told CNN that Ukraine will benefit from the events in Russia. “The fact that Prigozhin took all his Wagner fighters into Russia now will definitely have an effect on our frontline,” Serhii Cherevatyi said.

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June 24, 2023
Putin is at risk of losing his iron grip on power. The next 24 hours are critical | CNN

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CNN
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This just does not happen in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Especially in public.

The Russian president is facing the most serious threat to his hold on power in all the 23 years he’s run the nuclear state. And it is staggering to behold the veneer of total control he has maintained all that time – the ultimate selling point of his autocracy – crumble overnight.

It was both inevitable and impossible. Inevitable, as the mismanagement of the war had meant only a system as homogenously closed and immune to criticism as the Kremlin could survive such a heinous misadventure. And impossible as Putin’s critics simply vanish, or fall out of windows, or are poisoned savagely. Yet now the fifth-largest army in the world is halfway through a weekend in which fratricide – the turning of their guns upon their fellow soldiers – was briefly the only thing that could save the Moscow elite from collapse.

At the time of writing, 24 hours of extraordinary shark-jumping culminated with Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin agreeing to reverse his advance to within 120 miles (200 kilometers) of Moscow’s city limits and send his columns back to “field camps, according to the plan.” It is a last-minute reversal intended, he said, to avoid “bloodshed.” Shortly before this audio statement, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko apparently contacted Prigozhin, with the permission of Putin, to negotiate this remarkable climbdown, according to a statement from Belarusian officials and Russian state media reports.

Much of this sudden resolution is as curious and inexplicable as the crisis it solved. Prigozhin appears – thus far – to have had none of his demands heeded. The top brass of Russia’s defense ministry is still in place. He has done incalculable damage to Putin’s control over the Russian state, and shown how easy it is to take control of the key military city of Rostov-on-Don and then move fast towards the capital. And it took the intervention of Lukashenko, an ally whom Putin treats more as a subordinate than an equal, to engineer an end to this ghastly of weekends for the Kremlin.

More details of how this came to be will emerge. And the lasting damage done to Putin by this armed insurrection will be compounded by some key decisions the Kremlin head must now make. Will he pardon Prigozhin, and his fighters, or retract his statement about “inevitable punishment” for “blackmail and terrorist methods?” Does he make changes in the defense elite to placate Wagner’s head? What does all of this say to the Russian military, elite and people about who is really in charge of the country?

The rage and tension that has been building for months has not suddenly been assuaged. It has instead been accentuated.

So accustomed are we to viewing Putin as a master tactician, that the opening salvos of Prigozhin’s disobedience were at times assessed as a feint – a bid by Putin to keep his generals on edge with a loyal henchman as their outspoken critic. But what we have seen – with Putin forced to admit that Rostov-on-Don, his main military hub, is out of his control – puts paid to any idea that this was managed by the Kremlin.

It is likely however Wagner’s units planned some of this for a while. The justification for this rebellion appeared urgent and spontaneous – an apparent air strike on a Wagner camp in the forest, which the Russian Ministry of Defense has denied – appeared hours after a remarkable dissection of the rationale behind the war by Prigozhin.

He partially spoke the truth about the war’s disastrous beginnings: Russia was not under threat from NATO attack, and Russians were not being persecuted. The one deceit he maintained was to suggest Russia’s top brass was behind the invasion plan, and not Putin himself. Wagner’s forces have pulled themselves together very fast and moved quickly into Rostov. That’s hard to do spontaneously in one afternoon.

Perhaps Prigozhin dreamt he could push Putin into a change at the top of a ministry of defense the Wagner chief has publicly berated for months. But Putin’s address on Saturday morning has eradicated that prospect. This is now an existential choice for Russia’s elite – between the president’s faltering regime, and the dark, mercenary Frankenstein it created to do its dirty work, which has turned on its masters.

It is a moment of clarity for Russia’s military too. A few years ago, Prigozhin’s mild critiques would have led to elite special forces in balaclavas walking him away. But now he roams freely, with his sights openly on marching to Moscow. Where were the FSB’s special forces during this nightmare Saturday for the Kremlin? Decimated by the war, or not eager to take on their armed and experienced comrades in Wagner?

This is not the first time this spring we have seen Moscow look weak. The drone attack on the Kremlin in May must have caused the elite around Putin to question how on earth the capital’s defenses were so weak. Days later, elite country houses were targeted by yet more Ukrainian drones. Among the Russian rich, Friday’s events will remove any question about whether they should doubt Putin’s grip on power.

Ukraine will likely be celebrating the disastrous timing of this insurrection inside Russia’s ranks. It will likely alter the course of the war in Kyiv’s favor. But rebellions rarely end in Russia – or anywhere – with the results they set out to achieve. The 1917 removal of Tsar Nicholas II in Russia turned into the Bolshevik Revolution, Lenin and then the Soviet Empire.

Listen to Wagner chief vow revenge over deadly attack of his camp

As this rare Jacobean drama of Russian basic human frailty plays out, it is not inevitable that improvements will follow. Prigozhin may not prevail, and the foundations of the Kremlin’s control may not ultimately collapse. But a weakened Putin may do irrational things to prove his strength.

He may prove unable to accept the logic of defeat in the coming months on the frontlines in Ukraine. He may be unaware of the depth of discontent among his own armed forces, and lack proper control over their actions. Russia’s position as a responsible nuclear power rests on stability at the top.

A lot more can go wrong than it can go right. But it is impossible to imagine Putin’s regime will ever go back to its previous heights of control from this moment. And it is inevitable that further turmoil and change is ahead.

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June 24, 2023
Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner chief turned rebel? | CNN

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CNN
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Yevgeny Prigozhin is the founder and bombastic leader of Russia’s private military group Wagner. His organization is now in the midst of an apparent insurrection, after claiming control of military facilities in two cities and threatening to march on Moscow.

Prigozhin was once a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but the Kremlin leader has now vowed punishment on those involved in “an armed rebellion.”

Typically a figure who has preferred to operate in the shadows, Prigozhin and his fighters were thrust into the spotlight following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, with Wagner mercenaries playing a key role in multiple battles.

Putin and Prigozhin share relatively humble beginnings, and the Wagner chief grew up in the tougher neighborhoods of St. Petersburg, also the president’s hometown.

The men have known each other since the 1990s. Prigozhin became a wealthy oligarch by winning lucrative catering contracts with the Kremlin, earning him the moniker “Putin’s chef.”

His apparent transformation into a brutal warlord came in the aftermath of the 2014 Russian-backed separatist movement in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

Prigozhin founded Wagner as shadowy mercenary outfit that fought both in Ukraine and, increasingly, for Russian-backed causes around the world.

CNN has tracked Wagner mercenaries in the Central African Republic, Sudan, Libya, Mozambique, Ukraine and Syria. Over the years they have developed a gruesome reputation and have been linked to multiple human rights abuses.

After Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine the group was thrust to center stage. Wagner forces were heavily involved in taking the Ukrainian towns of Soledar and Bakhmut.

As the regular Russian army campaign was bogged down by setbacks and disorganization, Wagner fighters appeared to be the only ones capable of delivering tangible progress for the Russian side.

Known for its disregard for the lives of its own soldiers, Wagner’s brutal and often lawless tactics are believed to have resulted in high numbers of casualties, as new recruits are sent into battle with little formal training – a process described by retired United States Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling as “like feeding meat to a meat grinder.”

Prigozhin has used social media to lobby for what he wants and often cast himself as competent and ruthless in contrast to the Kremlin’s military establishment.

In recent months, Prigozhin has created a dilemma for Putin by becoming an outspoken critic of Russia’s military leaders.

In one particularly grim video from early May, Prigozhin stood next to a pile of dead Wagner fighters and took aim specifically at Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the Russian armed forces Gen. Valery Gerasimov.

“The blood is still fresh,” he says, pointing to the bodies behind him. “They came here as volunteers and are dying so you can sit like fat cats in your luxury offices.”

After complaining for well over a month of receiving insufficient support from the Kremlin in the grueling fight for the eastern city of Bakhmut, he announced in May that his troops would withdraw.

Now, Prigozhin has launched an all-out rebellion against the Kremlin – after his increasingly outrageous outbursts sparked speculation that he could be going too far.

The Wagner mutiny began when Prigozhin unleashed a new tirade against the Russian military on Friday and then marched his troops into the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

Staring down a sudden and staggering escalation of internal tensions that have simmered for months, Putin called Wagner’s actions “treason.”

“It is a stab in the back of our country and our people,” the president said in an address to the nation on Saturday.

Prigozhin responded on Telegram saying that Putin was “deeply mistaken.”

“We are patriots of our Motherland, we fought and are fighting,” the Wagner chief said in audio messages.

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June 24, 2023
Putin vows to punish ‘armed uprising’ by Wagner militia as Russia is plunged into crisis | CNN

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CNN
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Vladimir Putin is facing the greatest threat to his authority in two decades after the head of the Wagner paramilitary group launched an apparent insurrection, claimed control of military facilities in two Russian cities, and warned that his troops would head for Moscow.

Staring down a sudden and staggering escalation of internal tensions that have simmered for months, the Russian president said on Saturday that those on “path of treason” or armed rebellion would be punished.

“It is a stab in the back of our country and our people,” he said in an address to the nation, threatening a harsh response for those planning “an armed rebellion.”

Putin was speaking after the militia chief and his one-time ally Yevgeny Prigozhin dramatically stepped up his feud with Moscow’s security establishment over the handling of the invasion of Ukraine, throwing the country into crisis with a series of military moves that seemingly took Moscow by surprise.

After Putin’s speech, Prigozhin said on Telegram that the president was “deeply mistaken.”

“We are patriots of our Motherland, we fought and are fighting,” he said in audio messages. “And no one is going to turn themselves in at the request of the president, the FSB or anyone else.”

Prigozhin, who heads private military group Wagner, said his forces had taken control of Russian military facilities in the city of Rostov-on-Don, an important operations base for Russia’s war in Ukraine. He threatened to march on Moscow if defense minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia’s top general Valery Gerasimov did not meet with him in Rostov.

The Wagner group also claimed to have seized Russian facilities in a second city, Voronezh, some 600 kilometers (372 miles) to the north of Rostov-on-Don. The governor of the Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev, said the Russian military were engaging in “combat measures” in the area.

In its daily intelligence update, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Prigozhin’s insurrection “represents the most significant challenge to the Russian state in recent times.”

The briefing said some Russian forces had “likely remained passive, acquiescing to Wagner.”

And it predicted that individual decisions to support or betray Putin could tip the balance of the showdown. “Over the coming hours, the loyalty of Russia’s security forces, and especially the Russian National Guard, will be key to how the crisis plays out,” the report said.

The developments leave Putin’s grip on power looking suddenly perilous, 16 months after he launched an invasion of Ukraine that has been beset by military setbacks, strategic failure and disorganization.

In his remarks, Putin described events in Rostov as an insurrection. “The situation in Rostov-on-Don remains difficult during the armed uprising. In Rostov, the work of civil and military administration is basically blocked,” Putin said, adding that “decisive action” would be taken.

Prigozhin has been notoriously critical of the Russian military hierarchy since the war in Ukraine started. But he had spared Putin from direct criticism, instead directing his ire towards the President’s commanders.

The private military chief seemingly built influence with with Putin over the course of the conflict, with his Wagner forces taking a leading role in the labored but ultimately successful assault on Bakhmut earlier this year. The capture of that city was a rare Russian gain in Ukraine in recent months, boosting Prigozhin’s profile further.

But his rhetoric on Friday and Saturday indicated that Prigozhin had turned not merely against the military leadership’s handling of the invasion of Ukraine, but also on the longtime Russian leader.

On Friday, he said Moscow invaded Ukraine under false pretenses devised by the Russian Ministry of Defense, and that Russia is actually losing ground on the battlefield. That was a significant change from his previous criticism. In the past, he defended the reasoning for the war but was critical of how it was being done by the defense minister, Shoigu.

“When we were told that we were at war with Ukraine, we went and fought. But it turned out that ammunition, weapons, all the money that was allocated is also being stolen, and the bureaucrats are sitting [idly], saving it for themselves, just for the occasion that happened today, when someone [is] marching to Moscow,” Prigozhin said in his Saturday Telegram messages.

This dramatic escalation came after Prigozhin accused Russian forces of striking a Wagner military camp and killing “a huge amount” of his fighters – a claim Russia’s Ministry of Defense has denied and called an “informational provocation.”

The militia chief, whose forces have played a key role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, warned of retribution in a series of Telegram messages Friday and Saturday, where he announced his forces were moving into the Rostov region neighboring Russian-occupied Ukraine, ready to “destroy everything” in their way.

“There are 25,000 of us and we are going to find out why there is such chaos in the country. There are 25,000 of us waiting as a tactical reserve and a strategic reserve. It’s the whole army and the whole country, everyone who wants to, join us. We must end this debacle,” hte said, in a radical escalation of a longstanding feud with Russia’s military leaders.

Russia’s domestic intelligence service, Federal Security Service (FSB), responded on Friday, urging Wagner fighters to detain their leader and opening a criminal case against the militia boss accusing him of “calling for an armed rebellion.” Authorities in the capital Moscow, meanwhile, tightened its security measures.

Many officials quickly rallied to Putin’s side. Russian intelligence official, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseev, posted a video about Prigozhin’s actions that day, describing it as a coup attempt.

“Only the president has the right to appoint the top leadership of the armed forces, and you are trying to encroach on his authority. This is a coup d’etat. There is no need to do this now, because there is no greater damage to the image of Russia and to its armed forces,” he added.

Prigozhin denied his acts were a coup, saying instead they were a “march of justice” that would “not interfere with the troops in any way.”

Another key figure, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov spoke of a “vile betrayal” by Prigozhin on Telegram. “The rebellion must be crushed, and if this requires harsh measures, then we are ready!” he said.

But in Ukraine, authorities watched one of the most significant developments since the war began with intrigue and defiance. “The internal Russian confrontation… is a sign of the collapse of the Putin regime,” said Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine.

He said the events are “a direct consequence of the Putin regime’s criminal military aggression against Ukraine.”

Russia’s Ministry of Defense appealed to Wagner forces on Saturday to “safely return to their points of permanent deployment.”

“You were tricked into Prigozhin’s criminal adventure and participation in an armed rebellion,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said in their official Telegram Channel.

Russian security forces cordoned off Wagner’s headquarters in St. Petersburg on Saturday, as the state mobilized in response to Wagner’s moves.

The Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee also announced the introduction of a counter-terrorist operation regime in Moscow, the Moscow region and Voronezh region.

The counter-terrorist regime includes but is not limited to document checks, strengthened protection of public order, monitoring telephone conversations and restricting communications, restricting the movement of vehicles and pedestrians on the streets.

Moscow officials said in a statement that entry and exit to the city are not being restricted, but said there “there may be difficulties with the movement of traffic.”

Social media posts showed military vehicles were seen driving around the main streets of the Russian capital in the early hours of Saturday.

Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communication regulator, said the government may restrict the internet in areas of the “counter-terrorist operation,” according to Russian state media agency TASS.

Prigozhin has asserted that his forces would receive wide backing from Russian soldiers, claiming they were given a hero’s welcome when they entered the Rostov region and that by Saturday morning 60 to 70 had already joined up with his fighters.

“The border guards came out to meet and hugged our fighters,” he claimed.

Military activity became obvious in Rostov-on-don Saturday morning, when images began emerging on social media of military vehicles going through the streets and helicopters flying overhead, though it was not clear whose control they were in.

Rostov region Governor Vasily Golubev earlier Saturday asked residents to stay calm and not leave their homes in a Telegram post. The Rostov region is about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from Moscow. Its capital Rostov-on-Don has a population of around 1 million.

In the first suggestion of open armed conflict between the two sides Saturday morning, Prigozhin on Saturday said his units were hit by a helicopter on a highway. It’s unclear exactly where the units were.

“The Wagner units are intact, the helicopter is destroyed and is burning in the forest,” Prigozhin said, adding “we will take it as a threat and destroy everything around us.”

He also claimed a second helicopter was downed after it attacked civilians. CNN has been unable to verify any of Prigozhin’s claims.

Prigozhin added the alleged Wagner take-over of military facilities in Rostov would not impede military operations, saying his men are not stopping the officers from carrying out their duties.

Wagner has played a prominent role in the Ukraine war, and Prigozhin, so far, has faced few consequences for his public feud with Russia’s military leadership.

Prigozhin and Wagner have played an unusual and informal role in Putin’s Russia. He has known the president since the 1990s; both are from St. Petersburg. Prigozhin won valuable contracts as the Kremlin’s caterer and later set up the Russian troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency, whose mission was to interfere in the US 2016 election.

The fallout from his comments also inspired a wave of schadenfreude in Ukraine.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukraine’s presidential office on Saturday described the actions as exposing a deeper schism within the Russian establishment.

“The split between the elites is too obvious. Agreeing and pretending that everything is settled won’t work,” Myhailo Podolyak tweeted. “Someone must definitely lose: either Prigozhin (with a fatal ending), or the collective ‘anti-Prygozhin.’”

“Everything is just beginning in Russia,” he added.

Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, added on Saturday that “Ukraine has become a few steps closer to complete Victory over Russia and complete return of its territories, including Crimea.” He called Prigozhin a “vile, but useful” monster, predicting that Putin’s hold on power “will crumble like a house of cards.”

The impact of the events on the war in Ukraine remain murky, but it is difficult to see how Russia could emerge from the drama strengthened on the battlefield. Wagner’s forces have become essential to Russia’s war effort, and the possible redirection of Wagner troops toward the internal conflict would drastically weaken their ground campaign.

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June 24, 2023
One of the first Black Marines is seeking recognition decades after being wounded in World War II | CNN

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CNN
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Decades after Lee Vernon Newby Jr. was one of the first Black recruits to break the color barrier in the Marine Corps, he and his family are still fighting for recognition.

The 100-year-old and his four children want him to be honored with a Purple Heart for his service but so far, he’s been denied one despite his extensive injuries.

“I was over there serving the government, serving this country. They put me in harm’s way, but still they didn’t give me the acknowledgment,” Newby told CNN.

Newby, who now lives at a senior living facility outside of Detroit, was just a teenager when he fought in World War II. He says he felt fortunate to serve his country despite being one of the few Black people in the Marine Corps.

After being drafted, Newby was assigned to Montford Point, a segregated training facility in North Carolina.

Newby headed to the Solomon Islands for the Battle of Guadalcanal, as fighting took place between 1942 and 1943. During that time, Newby’s family says he suffered fourth-degree burns after gasoline exploded in a hole. The burns covered more than 60% of his body, his family said.

“All of a sudden, something hit me right in my chest. Just all of a sudden, it just burnt the clothes off of me,” he said. “When I hit the deck and got up, all the skin was just laying out.”

Ellena Dione Newby-Bennette, one of Newby’s daughters, said her father received medical treatment for several months and later was sent back into action. “He wasn’t 100% healed,” she said.

Newby received an honorable discharge in 1946 and returned home, where he struggled with racism and Jim Crow laws, his family said. He found work as a janitor and chauffeur, and eventually started a family.

“America is one of the greatest countries in the world, but I didn’t get a fair deal,” he said. Newby is still hoping it will change.

Newby received a letter from President Joe Biden on his 100th birthday earlier this year, and he has been recognized by state and local officials. But last month, he received a letter from the Navy, telling him he is not eligible for a Purple Heart.

The rejection, Newby says, reinforced feelings that Black people have been “getting a short deal.”

The Purple Heart has specific criteria for when is awarded to US service members, and is limited to those who are wounded or killed in combat. It is described as one of the most respected military awards.

In the letter, shared with CNN, Navy officials said Newby is considered ineligible because he was not wounded “at the hands of the enemy.”

The letter states at the time, Newby was working with another service member who was attempting to kill rats by pouring gasoline from a cup down a hole next to a stump.

The unnamed service member threw the cup when it ignited and set Newby’s clothing on fire, the letter said.

Newby and his family said they are planning to appeal the decision. Newby’s daughters said their father doesn’t recall that rats were involved and “doesn’t understand where that story came from.”

The Pentagon further clarified the rules, noting there are two key conditions which both must be met for the Purple Heart to be awarded.

“First, the wound must have resulted from enemy action. Second, the wound must have been of such severity that it necessitated treatment, not merely examination, by a medical officer. If the wound does not meet both standards, the Purple Heart may not be awarded,” spokesperson Yvonne Carlock told CNN.

Newby’s children said he experienced PTSD symptoms and they grew up listening to stories of enemy planes flying overhead bombs being dropped, and friends dying due to their injuries.

“How much more of his heart did he have to give? More than half of his body was burned,” said Newby-Bennette.

Newby’s children hope their father and other Black Marines who did not live long enough to receive notoriety are honored for their service.

“He deserves to have his due,” Newby’s daughter Jannise Newby said.

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June 19, 2023
As Beijing’s intelligence capabilities grow, spying becomes an increasing flashpoint in US-China ties | CNN

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Hong Kong
CNN
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For the second time this year, concerns of Chinese spying on the United States have cast a shadow over a planned visit to China by the US’ top diplomat as the two superpowers try to improve fractured ties while keeping a watchful eye on each other.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to land in Beijing over the weekend following the postponement of his earlier trip planned for February after a Chinese surveillance balloon meandered across the continental US, hovering over sensitive military sites before being shot down by an American fighter plane.

But with Blinken poised to make a trip seen as a key step to mend fractured US-China communications, another espionage controversy has flared in recent days following media reports that China had reached a deal to build a spy perch on the island of Cuba.

Beijing has said it wasn’t “aware” of the situation, while the White House said the reports were not accurate – with Blinken earlier this week saying China upgraded its spying facilities there in 2019.

The situation is just the latest in a string of allegations of spying between the two in recent months. They underscore how intelligence gathering – an activity meant to go on without detection, out of the public eye – is becoming an increasingly prominent flashpoint in the US-China relationship.

CIA Director Bill Burns secretly traveled to China in May to meet counterparts and emphasize the importance of maintaining open lines of communication in intelligence channels, CNN reported earlier this month.

“Crisis communications are arguably in their worst state since 1979. This puts a premium on both countries’ ability to gather intelligence to understand each other’s capabilities, actions, and strategic intent around the globe,” said Lyle Morris, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.

That pushes intelligence gathering itself to become “another factor that is complicating US-China relations,” he said.

That’s especially the case, experts say, as China continues to expand its own intelligence gathering capabilities – catching up in an area where the US has traditionally had an edge.

“It’s fair to say that we’ve been spying on each other at various scales for a long time,” said former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) China analyst Christopher Johnson.

“No doubt there’s been an uptick from both sides, but probably more so on the Chinese side, simply because they’ve gotten larger, more influential, richer, and therefore have more resources to devote than they did in the past,” said Johnson, who is now president of the China Strategies Group consultancy.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has also pursued a far more assertive foreign policy than his predecessors during his past decade in power.

That’s been accompanied by “a consistent emphasis on enhancing intelligence capabilities, modernizing technology, and improving coordination among different security agencies,” according to Xuezhi Guo, a professor of political science at Guilford College in the US.

China’s main intelligence activities fall under departments within the People’s Liberation Army and its vast civilian agency known as the Ministry of State Security (MSS). Other arms of the Communist Party apparatus also play a role in activities beyond conventional intelligence gathering, experts say.

The MSS, established in 1983, oversees intelligence and counterintelligence both within China and overseas. Its remit has encouraged analogies to a combined CIA and Federal Bureau of Intelligence. But the sprawling Beijing-headquartered MSS is even more secretive – without even a public website describing its activities.

The agency is “expected to play an even more significant role in China’s domestic and international security and stability” in the coming years, amid mounting challenges at home and abroad, Guo said.

In the context of both China’s growing clout and geopolitical frictions, experts say it’s no surprise Beijing is allegedly seeking to establish or expand surveillance facilities in Cuba – or other places around the world – with the US as a key target, but not the only one.

Meanwhile, intelligence gathering in China has become harder.

Xi has consolidated his power and become increasingly focused on security – including building out the state’s ability to monitor its citizens, both online and through China’s extensive surveillance infrastructure.

“The task of collecting intelligence in China is arguably harder than ever and yet more necessary than ever,” said Johnson, the former analyst, pointing to challenges of gaining insight into the government under the centralized leadership of Xi, who maintains a “very small circle of knowledge or trust.”

China’s building of a domestic “surveillance panopticon” has also enabled its counter-intelligence, according to Johnson.

US intelligence has difficulties having operational meetings or “going black” (dodging surveillance) within China, he said, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic when movement was tightly controlled and even more digitally monitored than usual.

CIA operations also suffered a staggering setback starting in 2010, according to The New York Times, when the Chinese government killed or imprisoned more than a dozen sources over two years.

In 2021, CNN reported that the agency was overhauling how it trains and manages its network of spies as part of a broad transition to focus more closely on adversaries like China and Russia.

This contrasts with what some US lawmakers and commentators believe has been a too relaxed approach to national security with regards to China, where even private businesses are beholden to the ruling Communist Party, which also seeks to keep tabs on its citizens overseas.

Experts have also warned about the overlap between espionage efforts and operations like those of China’s United Front – a sprawling network of groups that manage the party’s relationship with non-party industries, organizations and individuals around the world.

Heightened concern and awareness about Chinese intelligence gathering – or the potential for it – has exploded in the US in recent years.

That’s played out in debates about the use of Chinese telecoms equipment and social media platforms – think Huawei and TikTok – as well as in government efforts to prosecute economic espionage cases and prevent any influence campaigns from impacting American democracy.

Beijing has said repeatedly that it does not interfere in the “internal affairs” of other countries. Both Huawei and Tiktok have repeatedly denied that their products present a national security risk or would be accessed by the Chinese government.

In the US, there’s also been concern about over-hyping the threat and sparking anti-Chinese sentiment.

The US Justice Department last year ended its 3-year-old China Initiative, a national security program largely focused on thwarting technology theft, including in academia, after a string of cases were dismissed amid concerns of fueling suspicion and bias against Chinese Americans.

US intellectual property had long been a traditional target of Chinese espionage.

A survey of 224 reported instances of Chinese espionage directed at the United States since 2000, conducted using open source data by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank in Washington, found nearly half involved cyber-espionage, while over half were seeking to acquire commercial technologies.

Beijing appears to be increasingly pushing back on what it sees as a double standard – as the US’ international surveillance efforts have also been well-documented.

The 2013 leak produced by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, for example, revealed Washington’s vast global digital surveillance capabilities, against both rivals and allies alike. Meanwhile, the US intelligence community is widely understood to have its own overseas facilities for collecting signals intelligence.

Last month, Beijing released a report from a national cybersecurity agency titled “‘Empire of Hacking’: The US Central Intelligence Agency.” It accused the US of promoting the internet in the 1980s in order to further its intelligence agencies’ efforts to launch “Color Revolutions” and overthrow governments abroad.

“The organizations, enterprises and individuals that use the Internet equipment and software products of the USA have been used as the puppet ‘agents’ by CIA, helping it to be a ‘shining star’ in global cyber espionage wars,” the report also claimed.

China’s own internet is heavily censored with access limited by a “Great Firewall” – part of its extensive efforts to control the flow of information alongside its extensive digital surveillance of its own population.

China’s Foreign Ministry last month again pointed its finger at the US after Washington released a warning alleging that a Chinese state-sponsored hacker had infiltrated networks across US critical infrastructure sectors.

Earlier this month, the ministry also slammed the US for sending what it said were more than 800 flights of large reconnaissance aircraft “to spy on China” last year – though no assertion was made of crossing into Chinese airspace.

The comment came after each country’s military accused the other of misbehavior after a Chinese fighter jet intercepted a US spy plane in international airspace over the South China Sea.

Experts say this rhetorical back-and-forth over each other’s clandestine activities is likely only to continue as US-China competition drives both to ramp up their intelligence gathering – and China continues to expand its own prowess, including through technological advancements such as satellite networks, surveillance balloons and data processing.

“China increasingly has capabilities (that the US has been known for) … this is moving from a one way street historically to a two-way street,” said John Delury, author of “Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA’s Covert War in China.”

He pointed to how China had long been subject to US offshore surveillance and – prior to the restoration of diplomatic relations in the 1970s – direct aerial surveillance.

“There’s a psychological dimension to this as well,” Delury added, noting that the spy balloon incident earlier this year brought this to the fore – giving Americans the unnerving sense that China “can do this to us now, they have technical capabilities and can look at us.”

Meanwhile, there’s much at stake in how well the two governments can repair official communication – seen as a key element of Blinken’s expected visit on Sunday and Monday.

“When there’s less communication, the two intelligence communities inside the two governments have to do more and more guesswork,” said Delury. “Then there’s a lot more room for faulty assumptions.”

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June 14, 2023
Ukraine loses 16 US-made armored vehicles, group says, but Kyiv’s forces still gain territory | CNN

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CNN
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Ukraine has lost 16 US-supplied armored vehicles in the past several days, according to open-source intelligence analysis, as the country’s military announced its forces had captured three villages from Russia in an offensive in the eastern Donetsk region.

The 16 US Bradley infantry fighting vehicles either destroyed or damaged and abandoned in recent days represent almost 15% of the 109 that Washington has given Kyiv, according to Jakub Janovsky of the Dutch open-source intelligence website Oryx, which has been collecting visual evidence of military equipment losses in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on February 24, 2022.

The Bradley fighting vehicle, which moves on tracks rather than wheels, can hold around 10 troops and is used to transport personnel into battle while providing supporting fire.

When the first batch of more than 60 Bradleys were sent to Ukraine at the end of January, US Army Lt. Col. Rebecca D’Angelo, commander of the Army’s 841st Transportation Battalion, said the armored vehicles would be important to Kyiv’s offensive operations.

“This is going to hopefully enhance their capabilities to provide forward advancement in the battlefield and regain lost ground, by having equipment that matches or exceeds what the Russians have,” D’Angelo said in a US Army report.

But when Washington announced in January it would supply to Bradleys to Ukraine, CNN military analyst James “Spider” Marks, a retired general, said the Bradleys would need the right mix of other abilities, including air support, long-range artillery and incisive intelligence.

“A single piece of equipment like the Bradleys is wonderful, but it needs to be used in conjunction with all those other enablers,” he said at the time.

Air support is one area where Ukraine’s military is lacking, although Kyiv’s forces are expected to get F-16 multirole fighter jets from Western allies in the future.

Despite the loss of the Bradleys, analysts said it doesn’t necessarily portend problems for Ukraine’s effort to push back Russian invaders.

“Given the size of the front, and intensity of fighting I would expect such losses,” said Nicholas Drummond, a defense industry analyst specializing in land warfare and a former British Army officer.

Ukraine “is attacking across four main lines of advance in order to force Russia to commit its reserves. A necessary but costly approach,” Drummond said.

But he also echoed Marks’ comments from January.

“I’d like to see the use of armor accompanied by more artillery fire and combat aircraft. You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs,” Drummond said.

Drummond and others also pointed out a positive sign for Ukraine in its losses of Western armored vehicles.

“We are not seeing catastrophic damage. This suggests that the vehicles are doing their job and the crews are escaping,” he said.

And Janovsky, from Oryx, said the Bradleys might not be lost for good.

“Most of those vehicles are just damaged and abandoned, so it might be possible to recover and repair them if Ukraine takes the area,” he said.

The Bradleys are among almost 3,600 pieces of military equipment Ukraine has lost in the war, according to Oryx. Meanwhile, the website says it has documented the loss of more than 10,600 pieces of Russian military equipment.

In a statement in Monday, Moscow claimed it had destroyed multiple Ukrainian armored vehicles in the Zaporizhzhia region.

“Enemy armored forces are currently launching more and more attacks in the [Zaporizhzhia] direction. However, Russian anti-tank troops stand in their way, cold-bloodedly turning Western armored vehicles into scrap heaps,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said.

The statement did not say what kind of vehicles were destroyed.

Despite the loss of the Bradleys, Ukraine reports it has taken back at least three villages from Russian forces in fighting over the weekend.

Ukraine’s advance south from the front-line town of Velyka Novosilke in the Donetsk region now stretches somewhere between 5 and 10 kilometers (3 to 6 miles), according to information released by Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar.

Writing on Telegram Sunday evening, Maliar said the village of Makrivka had been recaptured from Russian control – the third in a string of settlements that sit along the Mokri Yaly River to be declared liberated by Ukrainian forces over the course of the day.

Earlier, videos emerged showing soldiers hoisting the Ukrainian flag from buildings in Neskuchne and Blahodatne.

CNN military analyst Mark Hertling said the situation was positive for Ukraine from both morale and battlefield perspectives.

“It reinforces the fact that they are moving forward,” Hertling told CNN’s Jim Acosta.

Meanwhile, “every single piece of land Ukrainian forces can pull back to their sovereign territory is going to be part of a march toward operational success,” Hertling said.

Reporting on developments, Russian military bloggers offered a pessimistic assessment of the situation facing the Kremlin’s forces in the area. The Rybar Telegram channel suggested late Sunday that Ukraine’s offensive looked set to continue, adding that Russian forces “should expect the pressure to intensify in the near future.”

Fighting is taking place near the village of Urozhaine, slightly further down the river, Rybar reported. The channel added that heavy cloud and rain were also limiting Russian forces’ ability to use drones to repel the Ukrainian advance.

A Ukrainian army spokesman said Russian forces had blown up a dam on the river, adding that there was flooding on both banks but saying it “would not affect our counteroffensive actions.”

On Monday, Ukraine accused Russia of blowing up another small dam along the border between Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia, near the village of Novodarivka.

Floodwaters spilled over both banks of the Mokri Yaly River after the dam of a small reservoir near the village was destroyed, according to Ukraine’s Military Media Center.

Novodarivka is one of several villages in the area that Kyiv’s troops have claimed in recent days.

In its most recent battlefield roundup, Russia’s Ministry of Defense made no mention of retreats but said its forces had “destroyed the concentrations of manpower and equipment” of three Ukrainian brigades operating in the same area.

Further west, in neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, Russian airstrikes and artillery fire by the Vostok brigade had succeeded in pushing back three Ukrainian advances south of Orikhiv, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian army spokesman told CNN that Kyiv’s forces have been counterattacking around the eastern city of Bakhmut for a week but downplayed its importance saying, “this is not a major offensive.”

“These are counterattacks where we take advantage of the fact that the enemy is rotating, that the enemy has not fully reconnoitered, has not fully coordinated its units, has not fully dug in. We take advantage of this and counterattack them,” Serhii Cherevatyi told CNN by phone.

He said Russian forces continue their shelling towards Ukrainian positions but said Ukraine’s forces had advanced up to two kilometers (1.25 miles) in places.

Cherevatyi said Russia’s presence in Bakhmut was maintained by airborne troops, with support from infantry personnel and mercenaries from several smaller private military companies.

While Russian forces continue to hold the city, Ukraine’s forces have concentrated their efforts on areas to the northwest and southwest.

Hertling noted that Ukraine has been using a “deep-strike capability” to disrupt Russian supply lines well back from the front lines.

“Ukraine has been very good in terms of striking deep targets that effect the logistics support,” Hertling said.

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June 12, 2023
‘Pretending to live a civilian life’: How pro-Ukrainian residents of occupied Melitopol feel daily fear | CNN

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Kyiv
CNN
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Editor’s note: The southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol has long been known for its sweet delights. The name “Melitopol” means “the Honey City” in Ukrainian and the city’s official logo features a cherry, a nod to the deep red fruit the region is famous for.

But life in Melitopol is anything but sweet. The city was captured by Russian troops shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year. Pro-Ukrainian partisans have remained active in the city, orchestrating several attacks against the pro-Russian administration installed in the place of its elected leaders. The Zaporizhzhia region in which the city lies is partially occupied by Russia and was illegally annexed last September.

Below is the account of a Melitopol resident in her early 30s who has refused to flee the city and is living under Russian occupation. CNN is not naming her because of concerns for her safety. Her testimony was translated from Ukrainian and edited for brevity.

There is terror in Melitopol. But it’s quiet, you don’t see it in the streets.

For partisans, the situation here is terrible. For those of us who rejected Russian passports and are now known as “the unreliable,” the situation is terrible. But if you go to the market, you wouldn’t think that anything is going on.

The Russians are trying to force everyone here to get Russian passports. It’s easier to manipulate people when they have Russian citizenship. Not getting the passports makes our life very difficult. They are refusing to give us access to hospitals and so on. We are a family of farmers and we are losing our land because we don’t have any Russian documents.

I’m afraid I will eventually have to get it. But we are delaying this moment. One relative went to the office and the queues were huge because everyone was intimidated into getting a passport. The process has sped up. Previously, you had to wait a month or two, but now they can print a passport in a week.

Everyone was given cash welfare payments until February, but starting in March, only people with Russian passports get them. That’s why many pensioners started getting passports now because there was no need for it before. Disabled people, people on low incomes, and those who wanted to use free healthcare took the passports immediately after the Russians started offering them, because they didn’t want to lose the benefits.

All in all, a large percentage of the population already has Russian passports. If you don’t, you’re a black sheep, and you can be subject to a frisking.

Here in Melitopol, searches are usually conducted after shelling and after guerrilla attacks on pro-Russian collaborators. My grandmother’s house was searched because a Russian soldier deserted when he was in the village. They searched the houses in the village, trying to find him.

The people who remained in Melitopol can be divided into several categories. There are those who are basically satisfied with the current pro-Russian government. There are those who don’t care and who would support whoever gives them more money in cash payments.

Those who stayed mostly support the pro-Russian government. They are convinced that it is here to stay.

Obviously, there are also Ukrainian patriots, those of us waiting for Ukraine to win this war. We whisper to each other in the market. You can tell that someone is supporting Ukraine at the market when you ask for high quality produce. Vendors start cursing Russia because they now have to choose between selling bad products and worse products.

There are still a lot of partisans, God bless them, but we are in the minority. Most of the Ukrainian patriots have left, especially those who actively participated in rallies, because there was a direct threat to their lives.

Our neighbor turned us in for supporting Ukraine, but we are not being touched, at least not yet. My neighbor works for the new government and she knows that we actively opposed Russia during the first phase of the war.

I think we will be issued some kind of document that they give to “the unreliable” which says we have refused the passports. This means nothing except showing that we refused to take Russian passports. It’s a temporary certificate of non-citizens, but you either take this piece of paper or you have to leave Melitopol. So, we are going to take it.

Until April, it was possible to move freely throughout the occupied zone without documents. Now you need a Russian passport or the non-citizen document, but they keep issuing warnings and saying that you need to get a Russian passport by June or you will not be allowed to leave.

People here are encouraged to send their children to summer camps in Crimea, like they were last year. Some parents on our street voluntarily sent their children to Crimea for a month and the children came back. But our neighbors, who have since left for Germany, did not want to send their son to a Russian school or to a camp, and it was okay. Their son stayed at home all year, studying online at a Ukrainian school. Children are not taken away by force here. You have to understand that parents send them there voluntarily.

It’s true that the occupiers are worried about the counteroffensive. The mood in the city has changed dramatically over the past month, from “Melitopol is forever with Russia” to thinking where and how they will build defense lines.

Of course, this is just what the ordinary soldiers in the city are saying, but there is no longer that victorious mood. I feel that something is going to happen here soon. Ukrainian hryvnias are being bought up in the market, and farmers are refusing to sell their products, because they are waiting to give it to Ukraine. And all the neighbors who are in favor of Russia have stopped communicating with us, because they are no longer sure that Russia will stay here forever and are afraid to talk.

There are more or less no problems with getting food. There is no variety, but there are no shortages either. The standards and packaging have completely changed since the invasion started. Butter that is made at the same factory tastes so bad now that we don’t know what to do to mask the taste.

Everything that is imported from Russia contains palm oil. That’s not an exaggeration, the ingredient list of a candy lists palm oil three times. It’s in everything. Sausages, cheese, candy, cookies, butter.

But the biggest problem is with medicines and household goods, as well as baby food. Russia doesn’t have good quality medicines and there is no choice. You go to a pharmacy and they give you one option, take it or leave it. People inquire about medicines for 10 minutes and in the end, they only have iodine. A woman in front of me was trying to buy Nestlé baby food, but the price was out of this world. She ended up buying some Russian-made equivalent.

My mother and grandmother have diabetes. The Russian medicines have the same active ingredient but they affect them in completely different ways. They have different dosages and excipients and my mother and grandmother started feeling much worse when they began taking them. We received some Ukrainian medicines from Ukraine through Crimea, enough for a month and a half.

The cynicism of doctors and pharmacists here is overwhelming. No one says anything directly. We call the war a “situation” here. So, they just answer: “Well, this is the situation, if you need it, go to Ukraine or Europe.” When I told the doctor that I needed specific medication, I was told to go to the city of Zaporizhzhia to buy it. And just so you understand, to go to Zaporizhzhia, you have to go via Moscow. That’s the only way.

In Russia, they don’t have the same standards and regulations for products. Nothing like that. Russian soaps, shampoos, and toothpastes are of terrible quality. Belarusian ones are a little better, and the best option for us here is Turkish shampoo. There are a lot of Chinese and Turkish products on the market. Russian and Chinese products are of the worst quality, while Belarusian and Turkish products are more or less okay, but more expensive.

The problem is that only the military here have a lot of money, and often they buy everything decent. The rumours that Russians themselves do not want to buy Russian products are true. Until September, Ukrainian products were smuggled to Melitopol and the Russian military bought everything themselves. Soldiers stood in line in front of me and asked for Ukrainian socks and soap. Now there are no Ukrainian goods anymore.

Everyone is pretending to live a civilian life. There’s no talk of evacuation. People are used to the explosions and to the fact that from time to time there are burnt-out cars of pro-Russian collaborators on the main street. People are used to the fact that Russian troops and authorities can come to your house and kick you out.

People have gotten used to everything over the year.

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June 11, 2023
Trump hits campaign trail as indictment roils 2024 race | CNN Politics

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CNN
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Former President Donald Trump is set to return to the campaign trail Saturday, traveling to Georgia and North Carolina for speeches at a pair of state Republican conventions as news of his federal indictment roils the party’s 2024 presidential race.

The pre-planned stops come the day after the Justice Department unsealed its indictment laying out the government’s case that Trump and aide Walt Nauta mishandled classified national security documents.

Trump’s speeches will mark his first public outings since he was indicted for a second time in less than three months, with probes into election interference efforts in Georgia and his actions surrounding January 6, 2021, in Washington threatening to pose further legal troubles.

The visits will give Trump a chance to respond to the charges in a campaign-style as he mounts battles on both the political and legal fronts. The former president is scheduled to appear Tuesday in a federal courtroom in Miami, where he will be read the charges against him.

So far, Trump has cast his prosecution as a politically motivated effort to stop his bid for the presidency. He has described special prosecutor Jack Smith as “deranged” and the case against him as a “hoax,” while accusing President Joe Biden of similarly mishandling classified documents.

“I had nothing to hide, nor do I now. Nobody said I wasn’t allowed to look at the personal records that I brought with me from the White House. There’s nothing wrong with that,” he said Friday on his social media platform Truth Social.

Trump released a four-minute video Thursday evening repeating many of his past claims, including that the Justice Department is being weaponized and that the investigations into him represent “election interference.”

“I am an innocent man. I did nothing wrong,” Trump said in the video.

News of the former president’s indictment Thursday was met at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey with a belief that he would benefit politically as conservatives rallied around him.

Trump spent Friday morning in Bedminster playing golf with Florida Rep. Carlos Gimenez as his allies made rounds of phone calls to shore up support for the former president.

After the indictment was unsealed Friday, concern began to settle in, a source familiar with the mood at Bedminster told CNN, as Trump aides began to acknowledge the legal implications. His team still thinks Trump will likely benefit politically – at least in the short term – the source said, but aides have grown more wary of how the indictment will play out legally.

Trump has long avoided legal culpability in his personal, professional and political lives. He has settled a number of private civil lawsuits through the years and paid his way out of disputes concerning the Trump Organization. As president, he was twice impeached by the Democratic-led House but avoided conviction by the Senate.

But after leaving office, the Justice Department’s criminal investigations into the alleged retention of classified information at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election cast dark clouds over the former president. Smith’s investigation into January 6, 2021, and efforts to overturn the election is still ongoing.

In March, the Manhattan district attorney in New York indicted Trump on charges related to hush-money payments to a former adult star. In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to announce in August whether there are any charges in her investigation into attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election in the state.

On the campaign trail, many of Trump’s Republican 2024 presidential rivals responded to the news of his indictment by attacking the Justice Department – another indication that they see advantage among conservative primary voters in defending a former president who remains popular with the party’s base.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday accused the DOJ of “weaponization of federal law enforcement” while vowing, if elected president, to “bring accountability to the DOJ, excise political bias and end weaponization once and for all.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence had called on the Justice Department to release the indictment against his former boss. After it did so, he did not comment on its contents while campaigning in New Hampshire.

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and Trump’s United Nations ambassador, characterized the indictment as “prosecutorial overreach” in a statement Friday, adding that it was time to move “beyond the endless drama and distractions.”

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who entered the GOP race earlier this week, said Saturday that Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents is not something voters want to spend their time on.

“When we’re on the road in Iowa the last two days and here in New Hampshire talking about the economy, energy policy, national security – those are the things that are hitting every American every single day,” Burgum told Fox News.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, another onetime ally and close adviser to Trump who has emerged as his chief critic in the 2024 race, described the details of the indictment as “damning.”

“This is irresponsible conduct,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Friday, adding that “the conduct that Donald Trump engaged in was completely self-inflicted.”

“The bigger issue for our country is, is this the type of conduct that we want from someone who wants to be president of the United States?” Christie said.

Another Trump critic, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, said the former president should drop out of the race “for the good of the country.”

“This is unprecedented that we have a former president criminally charged for mishandling classified information, for obstruction of justice. This obviously will be an issue during the campaign,” Hutchinson told Tapper on Friday in a separate interview.

“For the sake of the country, he doesn’t need this distraction. The country doesn’t need this distraction, as well.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

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June 10, 2023
Right-wing media wages war on U.S. justice system after Trump’s historic federal indictment | CNN Business

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Editor’s Note: A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here.

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CNN
—

The attacks on the rule of law have begun.

Moments after news broke on Thursday that disgraced former President Donald Trump had been indicted on federal charges, Fox News and the rest of the MAGA Media universe revved up into attack mode, denigrating the U.S. justice system and characterizing it as prejudiced against conservatives.

The assault on the American justice system was swift and savage.

On Fox, the historic legal action was portrayed as President Joe Biden weaponizing the Justice Department to target his political opponent.

“BIDEN ADMIN INDICTS A PRESIDENTIAL RIVAL,” one on-screen banner read.

“Yes, it is a dark day in America,” Sean Hannity declared. “We have said it often. There is no equal justice, there is no equal application of our laws. There is one set of rules for Democrats and another set of rules for Donald Trump and conservatives and anybody especially in his orbit.”

Despite the indictment not being made public, Hannity went on to tell his audience that the “system of justice” in the U.S. has “been weaponized beyond belief” and that the country is “in serious trouble.”

Throughout the night, Fox welcomed guests who echoed the Trump talking points and disparaged the justice system.

In effect, Fox News is once again platforming those who are leading vicious and irresponsible attacks on the country’s criminal justice system.

The defense of Trump, of course, was not just limited to Fox News.

Across the right-wing media ecosystem, the narrative that a sinister deep-state was unfairly targeting Trump to knock him out of the 2024 presidential contest was pervasive.

“PEAK WITCH HUNT,” the homepage banner on the right-wing Breitbart blared, adding “POLITICAL PERSECUTION INTENSIFIES.”

Elsewhere, on the far-right Gateway Pundit blog, more than a half-dozen stories were published Thursday night defending Trump.

The coverage harkened back to the years after the 2016 election, when Trump aimed to discredit and destroy institutions such as the FBI for investigating him.

News organizations covered the story by delivering fact-based reporting and analysis, while propaganda outfits such as Fox News disseminated hyperbolic commentary to their audiences.

Thursday night’s coverage did serve as a good reminder that outlets like Fox News can quickly fall under Trump’s hypnosis and snap into MAGA mouthpiece mode.

While Rupert Murdoch might personally hold great contempt for Trump, documents revealed as part of the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit showed that he is terrified that airing critical coverage of Trump will result in his supporters abandoning the channel.

And at the end of the day, that is what motivates such outlets. Their business models are not designed to provide fact-based news to audiences.

And that means giving voice to dangerous, dishonest commentary — despite knowing, after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the real-world violence that it has the potential to incite.

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June 8, 2023
Takeaways from CNN’s town hall with Mike Pence | CNN Politics

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CNN
—

Former Vice President Mike Pence staked out a series of clear differences with boss-turned-2024 rival Donald Trump, and needled other Republican contenders, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in a CNN town hall in Iowa on Wednesday night.

Hours after he launched his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, Pence broke with the former president on immigration policy, entitlement spending, US support for Ukraine in its war against Russia and more.

He said he would not reinstate the policy of separating migrant families at the border – a widely criticized practice that Trump didn’t rule out reviving in his own CNN town hall last month.

Pence also said that other Republican rivals were wrong to put changes to Social Security off the table, telling the crowd at Grand View University in Des Moines that seriously reducing federal spending will require changes to entitlement programs.

He sharply rebuked Trump for describing Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “genius” for his invasion of Ukraine, while casting DeSantis as naive on the issue. And he continued to criticize the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Pence said he and Trump don’t just disagree about the past; the two have “a different vision for our party.”

“I’m somebody who believes in American leadership in the world. Our party needs to lead on fiscal responsibility and stand without apology for life. We’ll have those debates,” he said.

Still, Pence said, he will “support the Republican nominee in 2024,” a pledge he said he felt comfortable making because he doubted Trump would win the primary.

“Different times call for different leadership,” Pence said. “The American people don’t look backwards; they look forward. … I don’t think my old running mate is going to be the Republican nominee for president.”

Here are six takeaways from Pence’s CNN town hall:

Pence urged the Justice Department not to indict his onetime boss, saying such an indictment would fuel division inside the country and “send a terrible message to the wider world.”

While Pence said that “no one is above the law,” he said the DOJ could resolve its investigation into Trump’s potential mishandling of classified documents without resorting to an indictment, just as the department informed Pence’s attorney last week that there would be no charges brought in the case of the classified documents discovered in his home.

But in Pence’s case, the former vice president immediately contacted the National Archives and the FBI to return his documents, while Trump resisted handing over his classified material and failed to return all classified documents after receiving a subpoena last May.

Pence’s response underscores the tightrope the former vice president is walking when it comes to the numerous probes into his former boss. CNN reported Wednesday that the Justice Department had informed Trump he’s a target of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the mishandling of classified documents and possible obstruction, a sign that prosecutors may be moving closer to indicting the former president.

While Pence criticized Trump for his actions on January 6 at his campaign kickoff Wednesday and at the town hall, he sought to distinguish those actions from the documents probe, protesting that there were “dozens” of better ways that the FBI could have handled Trump’s case before resorting to an unprecedented search the former president’s residence.

So far, Pence’s sharpest criticism of Trump came when he was asked about the United States’ role in helping Ukraine in its efforts to repel Russia’s invasion.

After arguing that the US should accelerate its support for the Ukrainian military, Pence pointed to Trump’s description of Putin in a February 2022 radio interview as a “genius” for his invasion of Ukraine.

“I know the difference between a genius and a war criminal, and I know who needs to win the war in Ukraine,” Pence said. “And it’s the people fighting for their freedom and fighting to restore their national sovereignty in Ukraine. And America – it’s not our war, but freedom is our fight. And we need to give the people of Ukraine the ability to fight and defend their freedom.”

Pence’s comments align him with Nikki Haley, Trump’s United Nations ambassador and a 2024 rival, and against their former boss and DeSantis, who entered the GOP race last month. The former vice president echoed Haley’s veiled shot at DeSantis – who described the war as a “territorial dispute” – casting such characterizations as naive.

“Anybody that thinks Vladimir Putin will stop if he overruns Ukraine has what we say back in Indiana, another thing coming,” Pence said. “He has no intention of stopping. He’s made it clear that he wants to recreate that old Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.”

Pence repeatedly highlighted his support for “parents’ rights,” especially when it comes to schools. But he said the judgment of those same parents should not apply to situations when a minor is seeking gender transition care.

“I strongly support state legislation, including, as we did in Indiana, that bans all gender transition, chemical or surgical procedures, under the age of 18,” he said – even when parents support their child’s decision to go forward.

Republican presidential candidates have all railed against what Pence on Wednesday described as “radical gender ideology,” language that by definition falsely suggests there is a movement of people seeking to convince young people to change their gender identities.

“However adults want to live, they can live,” Pence said. “But for children, we’re going to protect kids from the radical gender ideology and say no chemical or surgical transition before you’re 18.”

Pressed on the age question, Pence compared gender transition to body art, saying, “There’s a reason why you don’t let kids get a tattoo before they’re 18.”

When Bash asked what he would say to children and families who feel targeted by his position and those of his ideological allies, Pence offered an olive branch of sorts.

“I’d put my arm around them and tell them I love ‘em,” he said, “but (tell them) ‘Just wait.’”

Pence has been a fierce anti-abortion advocate his entire adult life. On Wednesday night, he made clear he would not deviate from that position.

“I couldn’t be more proud to be vice president in an administration that appointed three of the justices that sent Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history,” Pence said, “and gave America a new beginning for life.”

On the question of a federal ban on the procedure, Pence said he supported exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother. But he did not tap dance around the fundamental question, even as voters around the country – in the midterms and in referendums – have registered their anger over the Supreme Court’s decision and the subsequent passage of state laws to sharply restrict abortion rights.

“We will not rest or relent until we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law in every state in the country,” Pence said.

Still, the former vice president acknowledged that his side had a “long way to go to win the hearts and minds of the American people” and encouraged his allies to show both “principle and compassion.”

To that end, he offered qualified support for social spending programs to help support newborns and new parents.

“We have to care as much about newborns and mothers as we do about the unborn,” Pence said. But he stopped short of specifically endorsing paid family leave for all Americans or subsidized child care.

Pence said he would “take a step back” from the approach of the Trump-era landmark sentencing reform law, known as the First Step Act.

“We need to get serious and tough on violent crime, and we need to give our cities and our states the resources to restore law and order to our streets. And I promise you, we’ll do that, if I’m your president,” Pence told Bash.

Under the First Step Act, thousands of federal inmates, most of them serving sentences for drug offense and weapons charges, were released from prison early, either for good behavior or through participation in rehabilitation programs. The law also eased mandatory minimum sentencing for certain drug offenders.

Asked about DeSantis’ promise to repeal the First Step Act if elected president, Pence again conceded that he would take a different approach than the First Step Act.

“We ought to be thinking about how we make penalties tougher on people that are victimizing families in this country,” he said.

Pence repeated the criticism he has leveled at his former boss for more than a year, insisting that Trump was wrong to ask his second-in-command to overturn some states’ 2020 Electoral College votes in his ceremonial role presiding over Congress as it counted those votes on January 6, 2021.

Pence said he “frankly hoped the president would come around” since early 2021. Though he said he agreed that some states inappropriately changed their election procedures during the coronavirus pandemic.

“But at the end of the day, I think the Republican Party has to be the party of the Constitution,” he said.

Pence also broke with Trump over the legal fates of those who rioted at the US Capitol on January 6 – and have since faced criminal charges and convictions. Trump said he would consider pardoning many of those rioters, who he said were being treated “very unfairly.”

Pence, though, said the United States “cannot ever allow what happened on January 6 to happen again in the heart of our democracy.”

“I have no interest or no intention of pardoning those that assaulted police officers or vandalized our Capitol. They need to answer to the law,” he said.

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June 7, 2023
Ukraine accuses Russia of ‘ecocide’ as critical dam near Kherson destroyed sparking evacuations | CNN

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CNN
—

A major dam in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine was destroyed early Tuesday, prompting mass evacuations and fears for large-scale devastation as Ukraine accused Moscow’s forces of committing an act of “ecocide.”

Residents downstream from the Nova Kakhova dam on the Dnipro River in Kherson were told to “do everything you can to save your life,” according to the head of Ukraine’s Kherson region military administration, as video showed a deluge of water gushing from a huge breach in the dam.

Two videos posted to social media and geolocated by CNN showed the destroyed dam wall and fast-moving torrents of water flowing out into the river. Multiple buildings at the entrance to the dam were also heavily damaged.

The critical Nova Kakhova dam spans the Dnipro River, a major waterway running through southeastern Ukraine and there are multiple towns and cities downstream, including Kherson, a city of some 300,000 people before Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.

Ukraine’s Operational Command South on Tuesday confirmed the dam’s destruction in a post on its official Facebook page, saying they were assessing the scale of the damage and calculating likely areas of flooding.

Following the dam breach, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said its destruction “only confirms for the whole world” that Russian forces “must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land.”

He also convened an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.

Other senior Ukrainian officials blamed Russia.

“This is ecocide,” Andriy Yermak, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said of the dam’s destruction.

“The Russians will be responsible for the possible deprivation of drinking water for people in the south of Kherson region and in Crimea, the possible destruction of some settlements and the biosphere,” he added.

In a video statement posted on Telegram, Oleksandr Prokudin, the Ukraine-appointed head of the Kherson region military administration, said the water “will reach critical level in five hours.”

“The Russian Army has committed another act of terror. It has blown up Kakhovka Hydro Power Plant… Evacuation in the area of danger has started,” he said.

Prokudin said evacuations in the “area of danger” around the dam had started and asked citizens to “collect your documents and most needed belongings and wait for evacuation buses.”

“I ask you to do everything you can to save your life. Leave the dangerous areas immediately,” he added.

Units of Ukraine’s National Police and the state emergency service of the Kherson region have been put on alert to warn and evacuate civilians from potential flood zones, Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said.

Those zones are on the west bank of the Dnipro River, including “the villages of Mykolaivka, Olhivka, Liovo, Tiahynka, Poniativka, Ivanivka, Tokarivka, Poniativka, Prydniprovske, Sadove, and part of the city of Kherson – Korabel Island,” the ministry said.

With the water level rising, authorities urged everyone in the flood zone to turn off all electrical appliances, take documents and essentials, take care of loved ones and pets, and follow the instructions of rescuers and police.

The Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontiev, initially on Tuesday denied information about the dam collapsing in an interview with Russian state media RIA Novosti, calling it “nonsense.”

He later confirmed the destruction of parts of the dam in what he called “a serious terrorist act” but said there was “no need to evacuate.”

“Overnight strikes on the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant destroyed gate valves, causing water to be spilled downstream uncontrollably,” Leontyev said.

CNN was not immediately able to verify the claims made by Ukrainian and Russian officials attributing blame.

Throughout the course of the war in Ukraine both Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of plotting to blow up the Soviet-era dam.

The escaping torrent of water has the potential to cause major destruction around Kherson city and other populated areas along the Dnipro River, according to analysts who have been fearing a breach could occur in the fighting.

And President Zelensky had previously warned that a breach of the dam could have catastrophic consequences for those living downstream.

“Destroying the dam would mean a large-scale disaster,” he said in October last year.

However, a Russian-installed Kherson official Andrey Alekseenko said the situation along the areas of the banks of Dnipro was “under control.”

“There is no threat to people’s lives,” Alekseenko said, adding that Ministry of Emergency Situation staff are in control of water levels in the river.

“If necessary, we are ready to evacuate the residents of embankment villages, buses are prepared,” Alekseenko added.

The dam is a critical piece of infrastructure, holding around 18 cubic kilometers in the Kakhovka Reservoir, about equal to the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah, according to Reuters news agency.

The 30-meter-high, 3.2-kilometer (2 miles)-long structure is one of six dams along the Dnipro and supplies water for much of southeastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

It also supplies water for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which lies upstream and is also under Russian control.

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern command said the dam’s destruction will “certainly” affect the operation of the nuclear power plant but there was “no need to escalate the situation now and draw the most critical conclusions.”

“Because all experts are involved and will try to create better conditions to avoid the next technogenic catastrophe,” said Natalia Humeniuk, adding that “the situation is currently under control.”

And the International Atomic Energy agency said “no immediate nuclear safety risk” exists at the Zaporizhzhia plant and their experts are “closely monitoring the situation.”

In November, the Nova Kakhovka dam was damaged in shelling and satellite images from Maxar Technologies obtained by CNN showed water flowing out of three sluice gates at the dam.

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June 5, 2023
Exclusive: Top US general says Ukraine is ‘well prepared’ for counteroffensive in war that has ‘greater meaning’ for the world | CNN Politics

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Watch CNN’s full interview with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley on “The Lead with Jake Tapper” today at 4 p.m. ET.

CNN
—

The top US general told CNN on Monday that while Ukraine is “very well prepared” for a counteroffensive against Russia, it is “too early to tell what outcomes are going to happen.”

“They’re in a war that’s an existential threat for the very survival of Ukraine and has greater meaning for the rest of the world — for Europe, really for the United States, but also for the globe,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said in an exclusive interview with Oren Liebermann from Normandy, France.

Milley, who is retiring this year, is in Normandy to commemorate the 79th anniversary of the 1944 D-Day invasion – a massive World War II operation that he called the “greatest amphibious invasion in human history” – as the war continues to rage in Ukraine.

For months now, the US and its allies have been helping arm Ukraine for the counteroffensive, which was expected to start in the spring. Most recently, the US said it would support a joint effort by other nations to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets. Milley said that Ukraine is prepared for the counteroffensive because the US and partner nations have provided “training and ammunition and advice, intelligence.”

Russia has already begun to claim that it has repelled a “large scale offensive,” in southern Donetsk, though they have not provided evidence to support the claim.

The war has also begun creeping into Russia, as suspected Ukrainian drone strikes hit inside Moscow and a shelling attack was carried out in Belgorod. Asked Monday if such attacks would risk escalating the conflict, Milley said there is “always risk” of escalation, and it’s something the US is watching “very, very carefully.”

Speaking to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria last week, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US believes Ukraine’s counteroffensive “will allow Ukraine to take strategically significant territory back from Russia.”

CNN reported Monday that Ukraine has begun providing drones to a network of agents and sympathizers inside Russia who are working to sabotage Russian efforts. There is no evidence that the recent drone strikes have been carried out by those pro-Ukraine agents, but officials told CNN they had noticed an uptick of attacks inside Russia’s borders.

“There has been for months now a pretty consistent push by some in Ukraine to be more aggressive,” one source familiar with US intelligence said. “And there has certainly been some willingness at senior levels. The challenge has always been their ability to do it.”

A spokesperson for the head of the Ukrainian Security Service told CNN that they would comment on “instances of ‘cotton’ only after our victory,” using Ukrainian slang term for explosions.

Quoting Vasyl Malyuk, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, the spokesperson suggested that the attacks inside Russia would continue, telling CNN that “‘cotton’ has been burning, is burning, and will continue to burn.”

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June 5, 2023
5 things to know for May 31: DeSantis, Artificial intelligence, Debt deal, UK, Ukraine | CNN

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CNN
—

One-time Silicon Valley darling Elizabeth Holmes reported to prison Tuesday to begin serving out her 11-year sentence after being convicted on multiple charges of defrauding investors. Her life in prison will be quite a change, with mandatory jobs, very early mornings and no black turtlenecks.

Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day.

(You can get “CNN’s 5 Things” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.)

Ron DeSantis officially kicked off his 2024 presidential campaign Tuesday in Iowa. While speaking to reporters after the event at an evangelical church outside Des Moines, the Florida governor leveled a series of shots at his rival, former President Donald Trump, painting him as selfish, unprincipled and petty. As the opening contest in the GOP nominating fight, Iowa holds a unique role in sizing up the presidential field. That’s especially important this election season since it’s the first time in over a century a former president is seeking to return to the White House. Meanwhile, Florida officials just changed state campaign finance guidelines in a very specific way to allow DeSantis’ allies to initiate a specific kind of transfer to move tens of millions of dollars to a super PAC supporting his campaign. The planned move has already drawn a watchdog complaint with the Federal Election Commission.

Dozens of industry leaders and academics in the field of artificial intelligence have called for greater global attention to the possible threat of “extinction from AI.” A statement, signed by leading industry officials like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Geoffrey Hinton — the so-called “godfather” of artificial intelligence — highlights wide-ranging concerns about the ultimate danger of unchecked AI. Experts say humanity is still a ways off from the prospect of science-fiction-like AI overlords, but the flood of hype and investment into the AI industry has led to calls for regulation now before any major mishaps occur. The growing AI arms race has already generated more immediate concerns. Lawmakers, advocacy groups and tech insiders have raised alarms about the potential for AI-powered language models like ChatGPT to spread misinformation and displace jobs.

AI developers are warning ‘risk of extinction’ to humans

The House of Representatives is on track to vote today on a bill to suspend the nation’s debt limit through January 1, 2025. The bill already cleared a key hurdle Tuesday evening when the powerful House Rules Committee voted 7-6 to advance it to the floor. That’s a win for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was tasked with convincing members of the committee to vote in favor even though some fellow Republicans don’t approve of the bill and have vowed to sink it in the chamber. Still, it appears a wide range of House members on both sides of the aisle are poised to support the deal. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would reduce budget deficits by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years, and reduce discretionary spending by a projected $1.3 trillion from 2024 to 2033.

U.S. House to vote on debt limit bill amid criticism

The UK’s inflation problems are getting so out of hand, officials are considering food price caps to curb the crisis. New data released this week shows the cost of store items, a metric known as shop price inflation, rose 9% through the year to May. That’s the highest it’s ever been since such stats were first recorded in 2005. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is considering asking retailers to cap the price of essential food items, something the UK government tried in the 1970s to tepid effect. Economists say capping prices leads to lower supply and higher demand, resulting in shortages. The enduring shadow of Brexit still looms large over Britain’s economy, and some experts say the government should be focused on shedding burdensome regulations that resulted from the move instead of trying to control prices.

Russia’s war on Ukraine is increasingly spilling into Russian territory. The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, said four people were recently injured in a “massive strike” there. This is the latest in a series of strikes against Russian targets by Ukrainian forces. Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the spate of attacks, saying Ukraine “chose the path of intimidation,” and is provoking Russia to “mirror actions.” Amid all the violence, scientists have another concern: International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi has outlined a plan to protect Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and asked that Russia and Ukraine observe them to ensure the plant’s safety and security.

Russia blames Ukraine after drone strikes in Moscow

Alleged Russian ‘spy’ whale now in Swedish waters

Patiently waiting for a mystery novel series about spy whales.

Michael Jordan was a ‘horrible player’ and ‘horrible to play with,’ says former Chicago Bulls teammate Scottie Pippen

Dang, Scottie. Tell us how you really feel!

Venice authorities discover why canal turned fluorescent green

Given all the fluorescent things it could have been, this is quite a relief.

This is the world’s first 3D-printed, cultivated fish fillet

Mmm, science is delicious.

Air New Zealand to weigh passengers before they board the airplane

What an innovative way to make air travel even more stressful!

1.4 million

That’s about how many people have now been displaced in Sudan since a civil war erupted there in April, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says. Hundreds have been killed in the violence, and reports of sexual assault are increasingly common.

“I just tried to follow the police commands but I guess that didn’t work.”

— Aderrien Murry, the 11-year-old boy who was shot in the chest less than two weeks ago by a Mississippi police officer after he called 911 for help. The boy said he prayed and sang in the moments after he was shot as his mother tried to stop the bleeding. Aderrien’s family wants the officer fired, and is seeking restitution from the state.

Check your local forecast here>>>

Put a camera on your cat and show you the social circle of a country kitten

A perfect day

Bless people who put little collar cameras on their outdoor cats. These videos bring a type of peace I didn’t know existed. (Click here to view)

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May 31, 2023