Putin orders former Wagner boss to control ‘volunteer units’ and rejoin frontline

Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered one of the top commanders of the Wagner military contractor to take charge of “volunteer units” fighting in Ukraine, signalling the Kremlin’s effort to keep using the mercenaries after the death of their chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

In remarks released by the Kremlin on Friday, Putin told Andrei Troshev that his task is to “deal with forming volunteer units that could perform various combat tasks, primarily in the zone of the special military operation” — a term the Kremlin uses for its war in Ukraine.

Deputy defence minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was also present at the meeting late Thursday, a sign that Wagner mercenaries will likely serve under the Defence Ministry’s command. Speaking in a conference call with reporters on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Troshev now works for the Defense Ministry and referred questions about Wagner’s possible return to Ukraine to the military.

Seven EU countries have ordered ammunition under a landmark European Union procurement scheme to get urgently needed artillery shells to Ukraine and replenish depleted Western stocks, according to the EU agency in charge.

The orders – placed under contracts negotiated by the European Defence Agency (EDA) – are for 155mm artillery rounds, one of the most important munitions in the intense war of attrition between Ukraine‘s troops and Russia’s invading forces.

The scheme was set up as part of a plan worth at least 2 billion euros, launched in March with the aim of getting 1 million artillery shells and missiles to Ukraine within a year.

Some officials and diplomats have expressed scepticism that the target will be met but the initiative marked a significant step in the EU’s growing role in defence and military affairs, spurred by the war in Ukraine.

Until now, defence procurement has largely been the preserve of the bloc’s individual 27 member governments.

“Seven Member States have already placed orders for 155mm ammunition through the EDA’s fast-track procedure,” the agency said in an email in response to questions from Reuters.

“More orders, for instance for national replenishment purposes, could materialise in the coming weeks and months.”

Ukraine marked Friday’s 82nd anniversary of a mass killing, mainly of Jews, in Nazi-occupied Kyiv with an appeal not to forget an event that it said provided the moral basis for opposition to “Russian aggression”.

Nazi forces shot dead nearly 34,000 Jewish men, women and children on Sept. 29-30, 1941 at Babyn Yar, a ravine on the outskirts of Kyiv, after occupying the Ukrainian capital – which was then part of the Soviet Union – during World War Two.

Over the next two years, many more people were killed at Babyn Yar. Most were Jews but the victims also included Roma and non-Jewish Ukrainians, Poles and Russians.

“It is very important to always remember history, not to forget. Because ‘Never again!’ are not empty words,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said after leaving a candle at a monument of a Jewish menorah erected at the site to honour the victims.

He spoke with a small group of people gathered at the monument including relatives and descendants of the victims and rabbis from Ukrainian cities.

The Ukrainian foreign ministry urged the world to prevent such killings happening again and drew attention to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine 19 months ago.

“The memory of Babyn Yar and the slogan ‘Never again’ are the moral basis of humanism and opposition to any forms of aggressive-chauvinistic ideologies, in particular, Russian aggression against Ukraine,” it said in a statement.

Zelensky is Ukraine‘s first ethnically Jewish president, although he is not publicly religious. Most of his grandfather’s family was killed during World War Two.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday that “very difficult questions” would need to be answered before the European Union could even start membership talks with Ukraine.

EU countries are due to decide in December whether to allow Ukraine to begin accession negotiations, which would require the unanimous backing of all 27 members. Diplomats have said Hungary may be an obstacle.

“We cannot avoid the question – when during the autumn we will have negotiations in Brussels about the future of Ukraine – whether we can actually seriously consider membership for a country, to start accession talks with a country that is at war,” Orban told state radio.

“We don’t know how big the territory of this country is, as the war is still ongoing, we don’t know how big its population is as they are fleeing … to admit a country to the EU without knowing its parameters, this would be unprecedented.

“So I think we need to answer very long and difficult questions until we get to actually deciding about the start of accession talks,” he said.

Commenting on Orban’s remarks, Ukraine‘s foreign ministry said it was positive “that the Hungarian Prime Minister is concerned about Ukraine‘s accession to the European Union”.

“We would like to inform that Ukraine has not changed its territory within its internationally recognised borders,” the ministry added.

The British Foreign Secretary says that officials involved in “sham” elections, held in annexed Ukraine, have been sanctioned.

he Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said the 11 new designations are in response to attempts by Russia to legitimise its illegal control of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said: “Russia’s sham elections are a transparent, futile attempt to legitimise its illegal control of sovereign Ukrainian territory.

“You can’t hold ‘elections’ in someone else’s country.

“The UK will never recognise Russia’s claims to Ukrainian territory – Crimea, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson are Ukraine.”

The sanctions include restrictions on movement and finances, the FCDO said.

Britain also added Russia’s emergencies minister Alexander Kurenkov and the secretary of the Russian Central Election Commission Natalya Alekseevna Budarina to the sanctions list.

The British government has today implemented sanctions agsinst officials from the annexed Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk, and Crimea.

The sanctions will freeze assets and impose a travel ban on the officials from the regions.

Foreign minister James Cleverly said the UK “will never recognise Russia’s claims to Ukrainian territory” following the announcement, Reuters reports.

Britain also added Russia’s emergencies minister Alexander Kurenkov and the secretary of the Russian Central Election Commission Natalya Alekseevna Budarina to the sanctions list.

The move is part of Britain’s wider sanctions and reaffirms the UK’s ongoing stance against the annexation of Ukrainian territories.

Ukrainian tank crews in eastern Ukraine are the first to have received the arrival of the new tanks.

In January, the US pledged to supply 31 advanced M1A2 tanks after months of shunning the idea. US General Mark Milley praised the Abrams tanks, saying they “will make a difference” in the ongoing 19-month war.

Tank crews training in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine said that once they were deployed, the Abrams tanks, which reportedly cost $10 million to make, would be a big step up from the Soviet-era tanks they are currently operating, Reuters reports.

“The Abrams tank….has protection against ammunition detonation. (This tank) does not have it. If ammunition detonates, there is no chance to survive,” said tank driver Vitalii, 29.

The tank is considered particularly lethal against heavy armour forces with a powerful engine, 120mm main gun and special armour.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accompanied Ukraine’s chief Rabbi today to pay respects on the anniversary of the massacre there in the second world war.

Zelenskyy was blessed by chief rabi Moshe Reuven Azman during the visit Babyn Yar.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the chief Rabi said: “I blessed the President of Ukraine at this holy place and wished him, on the eve of the Sukkot holiday, strength of spirit, inspiration and God’s protection for the entire Ukrainian people. May the blessings of the Almighty accompany Ukraine on the way to peace and prosperity.”

President Vladimir Putin recruited a former aide of late Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin to oversee mercenary fighter units in Ukraine.

The Russian president met Andrei Troshev, who is known by his nom de guerre “Sedoi” or “grey hair“, along with deputy defence minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov on Thursday night, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Mr Putin reportedly said that they had spoken about how “volunteer units that can perform various combat tasks, above all, of course, in the zone of the special military operation”.

Read more on this from The Independent below:

Russian forces have reportedly ‘reduced the tempo’ of some localised offensive operation, war monitoring think-tank say.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) say that both Russian and Ukrainian officials are increasingly reporting fewer Russian ground attacks in the Kupyansk and Lyman directions in Ukraine. This reportedly indicates that Ukrainian offensive operations have ‘drawn Russian forces away’ from the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna line.

ISW has previously assessed that Russian offensive operations on the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna line aimed to pin Ukrainian forces on this line and away from more critical areas of the front.