Wagner group building new HQ, says leader
The Wagner group is building a new headquarters after merging with Russia’s national guard, new leader Anton Yelizarov has claimed.
“We are building a camp, so that the new units (a volunteer unit) that will be formed — which will become part of the volunteer corps of the Russia’s National Guard (Rosgvardiya) — can arrive and settle,” he said.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said the so-called “Cossack Camp” would “almost certainly” be based in Russia’s southern city of Rostov, The Telegraph reported.
It comes just days after reports in Russia suggested Yelizarov had disappeared.
Key events
Russia’s air defence systems destroyed seven Ukraine-launched rockets and two drones over the southwestern region of Belgorod, the Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday.
The Ukrainian strike was carried out with Czech-made Vampire rockets, the ministry said – the same type which, according to Moscow, was used in deadly strikes on the city of Belgorod in late December.
Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said two people had been injured.
UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi visited the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on Wednesday and said there were enough wells on site to supply cooling pools, Russian news agencies reported.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also rotated its team of observers who are permanently stationed at Zaporizhzhia, the agencies reported.
Russia seized control of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant after launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and its six nuclear reactors are now idled.
Ukrinform reports that a 56-year-old man has been injured by Russian shelling near the village of Molodizhne in the Kherson region in Ukraine’s south.
Christoph Heusgen, who is chairing this year’s Munich Security Conference, said Russian government officials have not been invited, as they did not seem open to meaningful dialogue.
Nicknamed the “Davos for defence”, the event will take place 16-18 February, days before the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Heusgen praised Germany’s support for Ukraine, as the second biggest provider of military help to Kyiv, and told Reuters despite the Russian government not showing a serious interest in negotiations, Russian non-governmental organisations had been invited. The Iranian government will also be absent.
Last year Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelenskiy was the opening speaker at the event.
Summary
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Russia launched a missile attack on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities on Wednesday morning, Ukraine’s air force said, killing one person in the south and triggering air defence systems in the capital, where several blasts were heard. Two loud explosions were heard in the centre of the city at around 7am, with at least two more 45 minutes later on, the Kyiv Post reported. One of its reporters heard air defences engaging multiple projectiles and saw one in-air explosion.
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said two people had been killed in the capital Kyiv on Wednesday in a Russian missile attack. “In Kyiv, more than 10 people were injured. As of now, we know of about two dead. There may be more people under the rubble,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.
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Ukraine’s air defence shot down 29 missiles and 15 drones launched by Russia in a massive attack on Wednesday, the Ukrainian army chief said. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said Russian forces launched 64 missiles and drones in several waves of the attack, Reuters reported. A total of 44 missiles and drones were downed, he added on the Telegram messaging app.
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Parts of the capital Kyiv were without electricity on Wednesday after a downed Russian missile damaged power lines, mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Kyiv and the rest of the country were under a massive Russian attack, with the air alerts lasting for over two hours already.
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President Vladimir Putin granted an interview to US television host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday, the Kremlin said, his first to an American journalist since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had agreed to the Carlson interview because the approach of the former Fox News host differed from the “one-sided” reporting of the Ukraine conflict by many Western news outlets, Reuters reported.
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The Ukrainian parliament passed at first reading a bill tightening army mobilisation rules aimed at allowing Kyiv to draft more people as war with Russia nears its third year, several lawmakers said. “This is not the final decision. There will be a second reading, and changes will be made before it,” Oleksiy Honcharenko, one of the lawmakers, said on the Telegram messaging app.
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Swedish prosecutors have said they will drop further investigation into explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines. “The conclusion of the investigation is that Swedish jurisdiction does not apply and that the investigation therefore should be closed,” the Swedish Prosecution Authority said on Wednesday. The multibillion-dollar Nord Stream pipelines transporting Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea were ruptured by a series of blasts in Swedish and Danish waters in September 2022, releasing vast amounts of methane into the air.
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UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi arrived at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Russian-controlled Ukraine on Wednesday, Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported. Grossi arrived at the plant accompanied by IAEA mission staff and Russian soldiers, RIA reported.
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Russia’s upper house of parliament has asked the finance ministry to draw up a law that would impose retaliatory measures on the West if it moves against frozen Russian assets, the TASS state news agency reported. The Financial Times reported on 3 February that the G7 had drawn up plans to use frozen Russian assets as collateral to raise money to help Ukraine.
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The Kremlin said on Wednesday that the goals of what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine remain unchanged. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the subject after being asked about the upcoming two-year anniversary of the date when Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.
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A missile attack in Mykolaiv left one person dead and reportedly damaged at least 20 residential buildings, said the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Sienkevych. Oleh Sinehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region in Ukraine’s north-east, said Russian missiles struck non-residential infrastructure in Kharkiv city, the administrative centre of the region.
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Polish and Nato warplanes had scrambled because “intensive long-range aviation activity of the Russian Federation is being observed, related to missile strikes on the territory of Ukraine”, Poland’s military said.
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Ukrainian special forces have said they blew up a drilling platform in the Black Sea that Russia was using to increase the range of its drones. The operation, dubbed Citadel, was conducted at night and also captured “important enemy equipment”.
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Joe Biden told Republicans in Congress to “show some spine”, stand up to Donald Trump and stop playing into Vladimir Putin’s hands as he acknowledged that an exhaustively negotiated, bipartisan bill that includes security funding for Ukraine is stalled. “All indications are this bill won’t even move forward to the Senate floor,” said the US president. “Why? The simple reason: Donald Trump. Because Donald Trump thinks it’s bad for him politically.”
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A two-month-old baby was killed and three people were injured on Tuesday in a Russian strike on Zolochiv, north-eastern Ukraine, officials said. “Around 2.30am a three-storey hotel was destroyed in Zolochiv … following two S-300 missile strikes,” said Oleg Sinegubov, the Kharkiv regional governor. Thirty buildings were damaged including cafes, a market, pharmacies and a hotel, police said.
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Some parts of the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka are in a “critical” condition as they fight off Russian shelling and incursions, according to Vitaliy Barabash, head of the town’s military administration. “This does not mean that everything is lost, that everything is very bad. But the enemy is directing very large amount of forces at our city,” he told Ukrainian TV.
Kremlin confirms Putin gave interview to ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson
President Vladimir Putin granted an interview to US television host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday, the Kremlin said, his first to an American journalist since before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had agreed to the Carlson interview because the approach of the former Fox News host differed from the “one-sided” reporting of the Ukraine conflict by many Western news outlets, Reuters reported.
“When it comes to the countries of the collective West, the large network media, TV channels, (and) large newspapers can in no way boast of even trying to at least look impartial in terms of coverage,” Peskov told a regular news briefing on Wednesday.
“These are all media outlets that take an exceptionally one-sided position. Of course, there is no desire to communicate with such media, and it hardly makes sense, and it is unlikely that it will be useful.”
Asked directly why Carlson had landed an interview with Putin, Peskov said the American journalist’s approach was “in no way pro-Russian, it is not pro-Ukrainian – it is pro-American”.
The interview is likely to be aired on Thursday, Russia’s TASS news agency said, citing reports by the Wall Street Journal
UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi arrived at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Russian-controlled Ukraine on Wednesday, Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Grossi arrived at the plant accompanied by IAEA mission staff and Russian soldiers, RIA reported.
The Ukrainian parliament passed at first reading a bill tightening army mobilisation rules aimed at allowing Kyiv to draft more people as war with Russia nears its third year, several lawmakers said.
“This is not the final decision. There will be a second reading, and changes will be made before it,” Oleksiy Honcharenko, one of the lawmakers, said on the Telegram messaging app.