Sooner or later Russian President Vladmir Putin will be eliminated by the men closest to him. This is the belief expressed by the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, interviewed by the journalist Dmyrto Komarov for a documentary on the occasion of the first anniversary of the war. “Certainly there will be a moment when the fragility of Putin’s regime will be felt in Russia – he says -. Carnivores eat carnivores. It is very important and they will not need any reason to justify it… They will find a reason to kill the killer”.
RUSSIA ACCUSES THE WEST – Moscow accuses the West of having ”destabilized the G20 talks”. This is what we read in a note from the Russian Foreign Ministry, which claims that Western countries have attempted to force a joint declaration on Ukraine “from an anti-Russian perspective”. “We regret that the activities of the G20 continue to be destabilized by the Western collective and used in an anti-Russian way,” the foreign ministry said.
BAKHMUT – Wagner group mercenaries have claimed the village of Yahidne, north of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. The leader of the group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, explained in an audio message shared on Telegram that ”the assault units of the Wagner group” have ”completely conquered Yahidne”. Instead, fighting continues in Artemovsk where, according to Prigozhin, the Ukrainian military are holding their positions, but there are signs of retreat.
THE MEETING IN BRUSSELS – Senior NATO and Chinese officials met in Brussels to discuss the war in Ukraine. This was announced by Beijing’s defense ministry in a statement, which underlined that the talks – held on Thursday, on the eve of the presentation of the Chinese position paper for a solution to the war in Ukraine – focused on the development of bilateral relations in the defense sector, with an exchange of comments on geopolitical and security issues of common interest, and on strengthening mutual understanding and trust”.
NATO, for its part, said it spoke of the “global security situation, with a special emphasis on the Russian illegal war in Ukraine, maritime security, the new strategic concept and the modernization of the Chinese military apparatus” . The talks were the first since the start of the Covid pandemic three years ago.
In NATO’s new strategic concept, China is defined as a “systemic challenge”, a definition contested by Beijing, which among other things in recent months has repeatedly indicated the expansion of the Atlantic Alliance as the cause of the war in Ukraine.
THE TORTURE CHAMBER– Russian forces have set up a ”torture chamber” in the town of Vasylivka in occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast in southern Ukraine. This was denounced by the General Staff of the Kiev army, stating that Russia has intensified the persecution of civilians in the occupied areas. According to the Ukrainian military, therefore, the Russians are putting increasing pressure on civilians and raiding their homes in the occupied parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.