Zelenskyy demonstrates for support, Wagner boss ‘no’ in Belarus

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has continued to rally support for his hopes of being formally invited to join NATO.

A few days before the Vilnius summit, the Ukrainian leader has taken his message to Bulgaria, where he has thanked the support received in the face of Russian aggression.

Although the Bulgarian parliament approved a declaration of support for Ukraine’s entry into NATO, President Rumen Radev spoke of peace.

“We would like the main efforts to be for peace,” he said. “We have not used all the means of diplomacy at this time.”

Zelenskyy had another meeting scheduled in Prague on Thursday and will meet Turkish officials in Istanbul on Friday.

Prigozhin on the move

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Wagner’s boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was no longer in Belarus and had returned to Russia, contrary to reports.

Wagner’s boss arrived in Belarus just over a week ago at Lukashenko’s invitation, negotiating a deal to end the Wagner group’s mutiny.

“He is in Saint Petersburg. It is not on the territory of Belarus,” Lukashenko told reporters on Thursday.

The agreement also dropped criminal charges against Prigozhin and allowed him to move to Belarus.

Lukashenko added that, to his knowledge, Wagner’s militants were still in their respective bases, adding that the relocation issue had not been resolved.

The offer to accommodate some of Wagner’s mercenaries stands as they are not a risk to Belarus, Lukashenko said.

None of Lukashenko’s claims have been verified and Prigozhin has not been seen in public since the rebellion nearly two weeks ago.

Russian missile attack in Lviv kills five civilians

Several people were killed and injured on Thursday in the biggest attack on Lviv’s civilian infrastructure since Russia invaded Ukraine last year.

At least five were killed and 36 others injured, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said, as emergency services workers searched for more people trapped under the rubble.

“Unfortunately, there are injuries and deaths. My condolences to the family. There will definitely be a response to the enemy. A tangible one,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a reaction video posted on Telegram.

Zelenskyy also posted drone footage showing destroyed buildings from above.

The missile destroyed entire floors of a residential building that was hit, leaving the streets below littered with rubble.

Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted seven of the 10 Kalibr cruise missiles that Russia fired from the Black Sea into Ukraine’s western Lviv region and the wider region early Thursday.

Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said that around 60 apartments and 50 cars in the strike area were damaged.

Addressing residents in a video message, Sadovyi said the attack was the largest on Lviv’s civilian infrastructure since the start of the full-scale invasion last year.

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian war refugees have sought safety in Lviv from other areas to the east.

Russia steps up campaign against Wagner

Russian state television branded Wagner’s exiled boss Yevgeny Prigozhin a “traitor” in a program broadcast on Wednesday.

Russia-1 TV channel revealed that an investigation into the mercenary group’s failed mutiny is ongoing and could result in a criminal case against Prigozhin.

Wagner began a “March of Justice” on June 23, capturing the southern Russian cities of Rostov-on-Don and Voronezh before stopping en route to Moscow, following a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

The 60-minute program consisted of footage purporting to show luxuries in Progozhin’s St. Petersburg office and residence.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War recently said that Moscow is trying to discredit the mercenary leader in the eyes of the Russian population.

Footage from police raids on Prigozhin’s office and residence showed boxes full of Russian rubles and US dollars, his personal helicopter and the infamous Wagner group deck collection.

The show also accused Wagner’s boss of possessing multiple passports, all under different names.

“A normal person cannot have so many passports,” said journalist Eduard Petrov, a special guest on the broadcast.

Petrov blamed Prigozhin for feeding pro-Wagner propaganda to present himself as the people’s hero.

“We need to get to the bottom of who was on which side (in the riot). We need to punish and prosecute them,” he said, adding that Prigozhin-influenced media have been shut down after his exile.

The director general of the Russian news agency TASS had been replaced, the US-based think tank Institute for the Study of War said on Wednesday.

Ukrainian officials said the move may be due to the Kremlin’s disapproval of how the Wagner riot was reported.

Russia to replace Wagner’s troops with Chechen convicts and fighters

Russia plans to send Chechen fighters and more prisoners to Ukraine to fill the void left by the Wagner group’s withdrawal.

Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Bakhmut could overburden Russian units, US-based Bloomberg said, citing European intelligence officials.

“Russia deployed large numbers of troops to Bakhmut after Wagner announced his withdrawal from the city at the end of May, leaving shortages in occupied areas of southern Ukraine,” the officials said.

Estimates say that some 15,000 convicts are already fighting the war in Ukraine and the Russian Defense Ministry plans to increase that figure.

The head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, said in May that 7,000 Chechen soldiers were deployed to war zones with 2,400 soldiers undergoing war training.

The Wagner paramilitary group withdrew from the front after refusing to sign a contract with the Defense Ministry.

However, his withdrawal from the battle will not change the course of the war, according to intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law facilitating the early release of convicts who agree to fight in Ukraine on the same day Wagner boss Prigozhin went into exile in Belarus.