Zie ookOekraïne claimt belangrijke overwinning in strategische stad Kherson
1:50Third retreat since September
The retreat is the third since the invasion began on 24 February. Russia has given up on an offensive in the Kiev region in the spring. In September, after military setbacks in the northeast, it abandoned virtually the entire Kharkiv region.
According to the Moscow Defense Ministry, no losses were incurred in the withdrawal. Ukraine says the operation was very chaotic and many Russians drowned. Even Russian soldiers, plainclothes or not, are said to have remained in the city. The Ukrainian military called on them to surrender.
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0:37The Russian Wagner group says it is training militias in the border region
The Russian Wagner group says it is training civilians in regions bordering Ukraine. According to the founder of the paramilitary organization, Yevgeny Prigozhin, they are forming new militias and building fortifications to protect the border.
“Wagner will help the people in the border regions build infrastructure, train and organize a militia.” Prigozhin says large groups of people are already “ready to defend their country”.
It would mainly affect the Belgorod and Kursk regions, which, according to Moscow, have been regularly targeted in recent months. The Russians accuse the Ukrainian army of attacks on cities near the Kharkiv border.
The group has been accused of war crimes since 2014
Prigozhin first admitted in September that Wagner is active in the war in Ukraine. The mercenaries are said to have been there since 2014 and have been accused of war crimes in the Donetsk Basin by human rights groups and the Ukrainian government for years.
The private army has already fought in Africa and Latin America and is also said to be responsible for war crimes in Syria. Wagner has been accused of being an extension of the Russian state, but the Kremlin denies it. The paramilitary group opened a headquarters in St. Petersburg this month.
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