Russia attacks Ukraine

[Megaterio Llamas]

I think Dimitri Utkin was Prigozhin's second in commend.

https://t.me/intelslava/50765

[Edge Guerrero]

I think Dimitri Utkin was Prigozhin's second in commend.

https://t.me/intelslava/50765

-Looks like he was the actual founder and reason of the name wagner

[Edge Guerrero]

Prigozhin's body taken to medical examiner's office as Kremlin remains silent
There has been no comment from the Kremlin or the Russian Ministry of Defense.

ByJon Haworth
August 24, 2023, 7:32 AM

LONDON -- The bodies of those killed in the plane crash near Kuzhenkino, Russia, including Yevgeny Prigozhin and the commander of the Wagner PMC Dmitry Utkin, have been moved to the Tver Regional Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination, ABC News has learned.

There has still been no comment from the Kremlin or the Russian Ministry of Defense on Wednesday’s crash.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has, however, spoken on Thursday morning as he addressed the BRICS summit of leaders meeting in Johannesburg remotely, but made no mention of the crash in his remarks.

Meanwhile, in St Petersburg -- Prigozhin’s home town -- dozens of people have been arriving to light candles and drop flowers at a pop-up memorial.

The jet manufacturer that Prigozhun and Utkin were reportedly on has an impeccable record and it was the first recorded crash in the history of the Embraer Legacy 600.

Elsewhere, President Zelenskyy made remarks commemorating marking Ukrainian Independence Day and handed out medals to Ukrainian solders.

Among the 10 dead were three crew members and seven passengers. The seven passengers were identified as Sergey Propustin, Evgeniy Makaryan, Aleksandr Totmin, Valeriy Chekalov, Dmitriy Utkin, Nikolay Matuseev and Prigozhin. The crew was identified as Cmdr. Aleksei Levshin, co-pilot Rustam Karimov and flight attendant Kristina Raspopova.

The Federal Air Transport Agency said the plane was en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg when it went down near Kuzhenkino.

White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement on Wednesday that officials were watching the reports of the plane crash.

"If confirmed, no one should be surprised. The disastrous war in Ukraine led to a private army marching on Moscow, and now -- it would seem -- to this," she said.

Prigozhin was the head of the private paramilitary organization Wagner Group, which played a key role in Russia's invasion of Ukraine before briefly launching an insurrection against the Russian military in June. Forces loyal to Prigozhin marched toward Moscow, before turning back after several days.

ABC News' Joe Simonetti, Mark Osborne, Ivan Pereira and Tanya Stukalova contributed to this report.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/prigozhins-body-medical-examiners-office-kremlin-remains-silent/story?id=102525074

[Megaterio Llamas]

I think Dimitri Utkin was Prigozhin's second in commend.

https://t.me/intelslava/50765

-Looks like he was the actual founder and reason of the name wagner

Valeriy Chekalov was also a top commander with Wagner.

I guess they lost three of their bosses in the crash.

[Edge Guerrero]

I think Dimitri Utkin was Prigozhin's second in commend.

https://t.me/intelslava/50765

-Looks like he was the actual founder and reason of the name wagner

Valeriy Chekalov was also a top commander with Wagner.

I guess they lost three of their bosses in the crash.

- They made a basic risc administration error. The heads of a business dont fly togheter.

[Edge Guerrero]

Kremlin denies role in plane crash believed to have killed Russian mercenary leader Prigozhin
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has rejected allegations that the Kremlin was behind a plane crash that is presumed to have killed mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin

The Kremlin on Friday rejected allegations it was behind a plane crash that is presumed to have killed mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose brutal fighters were feared in Ukraine, Africa and Syria and conducted a brief but shocking mutiny in Russia two months ago.

Prigozhin, who was listed among those on board the plane, was eulogized Thursday by President Vladimir Putin, even as suspicions grew that the Russian leader was behind a crash that many saw as an assassination.

A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded the plane was downed Wednesday by an intentional explosion. One of the U.S. and Western officials who described the initial U.S. assessment said it determined that Prigozhin was “very likely” targeted and that the explosion falls in line with Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.”

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, did not offer any details on what caused the explosion, which was widely believed to be vengeance for the mutiny in June that posed the biggest challenge to Putin’s 23-year rule.

But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov flatly rejected the allegations.

“Right now, of course, there are lots of speculations around this plane crash and the tragic deaths of the passengers of the plane, including Yevgeny Prigozhin," Peskov told reporters during a conference call. "Of course, in the West those speculations are put out under a certain angle, and all of it is a complete lie,”

Asked by The Associated Press whether the Kremlin has received an official confirmation of Prigozhin’s death, Peskov referenced Putin’s remarks from a day earlier: “He said that right now all the necessary forensic analyses, including genetic testing, will be carried out. Once some kind of official conclusions are ready to be released, they will be released.”

Britain's Defense Ministry said the presumed death of Prigozhin could destabilize his Wagner Group of private military contractors.

“The demise of Prigozhin almost certainly would have a deeply destabilizing effect on the Wagner Group. His personal attributes of hyperactivity, exceptional audacity, a drive for results and extreme brutality permeated Wagner and are unlikely to be matched by any successor,” the ministry said in a statement.

Wagner mercenaries were key elements of Russia’s forces in its war in Ukraine, particularly in the long fight to take the city of Bakhmut, the conflict’s most grueling battle. Wagner fighters also have played a central role projecting Russian influence in global trouble spots, first in Africa and then in Syria.

“When it comes to the future (of Wagner), I can’t tell you anything — I don’t know,” Peskov said.

The jet crashed Wednesday soon after taking off from Moscow for St. Petersburg, carrying Prigozhin, six other Wagner members, and a crew of three, according to Russia’s civil aviation authority. Rescuers found 10 bodies, and Russian media cited anonymous sources in Wagner who said Prigozhin was dead. But there has been no official confirmation.

President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters Wednesday, said he believed Putin was likely behind the crash.

“I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised,” Biden said. “There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov took offense at that. “It is not for the U.S. president, in my opinion, to talk about certain tragic events of this nature,” he said Friday.

The passenger manifest also included Prigozhin’s second-in-command, whose nom de guerre became the group's name, as well as Wagner’s logistics chief and at least one possible bodyguard.

It was not clear why several high-ranking members of Wagner, who are normally exceedingly careful about their security, would have been on the same flight. The purpose of their trip to St. Petersburg was unknown.

Russian authorities have opened an investigation into the crash and news reports said the plane's wreckage has been removed from where it fell.

In this first public comments on the crash, Putin said the passengers had “made a significant contribution” to the fighting in Ukraine.

“We remember this, we know, and we will not forget,” he said in a televised interview with the Russian-installed leader of Ukraine’s partially occupied Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin.

Putin said he had known Prigozhin since the early 1990s and described him as “a man of difficult fate” who had “made serious mistakes in life, and he achieved the results he needed — both for himself and, when I asked him about it, for the common cause, as in these last months. He was a talented man, a talented businessman.”

Russian state media have not covered the crash extensively, instead focusing on Putin’s Thursday remarks to the BRICS summit in Johannesburg via video link and the fighting in Ukraine.

Sergei Mironov, the leader of the pro-Kremlin Fair Russia party and former chairman of the upper house of parliament, said on his Telegram channel that Prigozhin had “messed with too many people in Russia, Ukraine and the West.”

“It now seems that at some point, his number of enemies reached a critical point,” Mironov wrote.

Numerous opponents and critics of Putin have been killed or fallen gravely ill in apparent assassination attempts, and U.S. and other Western officials long expected the Russian leader to go after Prigozhin, despite promising to drop charges in a deal that ended the June 23-24 mutiny.

Prigozhin was outspoken and critical of how Russian generals were waging the war in Ukraine, where his mercenaries were some of the fiercest fighters for the Kremlin. For a long time, Putin appeared content to allow such infighting, but Prigozhin’s brief revolt raised the ante.

On June 23, his mercenaries swept through the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and captured the military headquarters there without firing a shot. They then drove to within about 200 kilometers (125 miles) of Moscow and downed several military aircraft, killing more than a dozen Russian pilots.

Putin initially denounced the rebellion as “treason” and a “stab in the back," but soon made a deal that saw an end to the mutiny a day after it began in exchange for an amnesty for Prigozhin and his mercenaries and permission for them to move to Belarus.

Since Prigozhin's presumed death, unconfirmed reports said hundreds of Wagner's fighters have fled Belarus. "Even before Aug. 23, we recorded that the number of mercenaries in Belarus was decreasing, and since Aug. 23, their number has also continued to decrease,” Ukrainian border service spokesperson Andriy Demchenko said Friday.

In the days after the crash, people have been bringing flowers and candles to makeshift memorials near Wagner offices in different cities, including Prigozhin's hometown of St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, along with Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Rostov-on-Don, media reports said.

Relatives of Wagner fighters on one Telegram chat reported long lines for payments at a Wagner office in the southern Krasnodar region, the private force’s base.

___

Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed.

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/uk-russian-mercenary-chiefs-death-destabilize-private-army-102556916

[Edge Guerrero]

Russia says it confirmed Wagner leader Prigozhin died in a plane crash

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities on Sunday confirmed the death of Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, putting to rest any doubts about whether the wily mercenary leader turned mutineer was on a plane that crashed Wednesday, killing everyone on board.

Genetic testing on the 10 bodies recovered at the crash site “conform to the manifest ” for the flight, Russian Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement. Russia’s civil aviation authority had said Prigozhin and some of his top lieutenants were on the list of seven passengers and three crew members.

The Investigative Committee did not indicate what might have caused the business jet to plummet from the sky halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, Prigozhin’s hometown.

But the crash’s timing raised suspicions of a possible Kremlin-orchestrated hit, while Prigozhin’s chameleon-like background allowed for speculation that he wasn’t on the plane or had somehow escaped death.

Two months ago, Prigozhin, 62, mounted a daylong mutiny against Russia’s military, leading his mercenaries from Ukraine toward Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin decried the act as “treason” and vowed punishment for those involved.


Instead, the Kremlin quickly cut a deal with Prigozhin to end the armed revolt, saying he would be allowed to walk free without facing any charges and to resettle in Belarus. Questions remained about whether the former ally of Russia’s leader would face a comeuppance for the brief uprising that posed the biggest challenge to Putin’s authority of his 23-year rule.

A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that an intentional explosion caused the plane to go down. As suspicions grew that the Russian president was the architect of an assassination, the Kremlin rejected them as a “complete lie.”

One of the Western officials who described the initial assessment said it determined that Prigozhin was “very likely” targeted and that an explosion would be in line with Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.”

Prigozhin’s second-in-command, Dmitry Utkin, as well as Wagner logistics mastermind Valery Chekalov, also were killed in the crash. Utkin was long believed to have founded Wagner and baptized the group with his nom de guerre.

The fate of Wagner, which until recently played a prominent role in Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine and was involved in a number of African and Middle Eastern countries, is uncertain.

After the mutiny, the Kremlin said Prigozhin would be exiled in Belarus, and his fighters were offered three options: to follow him there, retire or enlist in Russia’s regular army and return to Ukraine, where Wagner mercenaries had fought alongside Russian troops.

Several thousand Wagner mercenaries opted to move to Belarus, where a camp was erected for them southeast of the capital, Minsk.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-prigozhin-wagner-2c77567908c73e538f9f1c76ae406f8f

[Megaterio Llamas]

‘Blood Tribe’ leader comes out in support of Biden for 2024

https://www.azerbaycan24.com/en/blood-t ... -for-2024/


The open neo-Nazi has praised Kiev’s extremist Azov regiment at a march near Disney World in Florida Christopher Pohlhaus leads a neo-Nazi rally in Orlando, Florida, September 2, 2023 © Getty images / Stephanie Keith



The leader of a flamboyant white supremacist group has told US media that he supports current US President Joe Biden over his predecessor Donald Trump because “he sends rockets to Ukraine.” Police say the group is “looking for attention.”

Former US Marine Christopher Pohlhaus, who refers to himself online as ‘The Hammer’, led a march of several dozen ‘Blood Tribe’ members in the Orlando area on Saturday. Dressed in red and black and waving swastika banners, Pohlhaus’ crew performed Nazi salutes at passing traffic and shouted “Heil Hitler.”

The gathering drew the attention of local media, with independent reporter Brendan Gutenschwager stopping to interview Pohlhaus. Despite President Joe Biden describing white supremacy as “the most lethal terrorist threat in the homeland,” Pohlhaus expressed support for the Democrat president.

Region 04/09/2023 20:26Share Whatsapp Telegram Twitter Facebook A+ A-
‘Blood Tribe’ leader comes out in support of Biden for 2024

Christopher Pohlhaus leads a neo-Nazi rally in Orlando, Florida, September 2, 2023 © Getty images / Stephanie Keith

The open neo-Nazi has praised Kiev’s extremist Azov regiment at a march near Disney World in Florida Christopher Pohlhaus leads a neo-Nazi rally in Orlando, Florida, September 2, 2023 © Getty images / Stephanie Keith

The leader of a flamboyant white supremacist group has told US media that he supports current US President Joe Biden over his predecessor Donald Trump because “he sends rockets to Ukraine.” Police say the group is “looking for attention.”

Former US Marine Christopher Pohlhaus, who refers to himself online as ‘The Hammer’, led a march of several dozen ‘Blood Tribe’ members in the Orlando area on Saturday. Dressed in red and black and waving swastika banners, Pohlhaus’ crew performed Nazi salutes at passing traffic and shouted “Heil Hitler.”

The gathering drew the attention of local media, with independent reporter Brendan Gutenschwager stopping to interview Pohlhaus. Despite President Joe Biden describing white supremacy as “the most lethal terrorist threat in the homeland,” Pohlhaus expressed support for the Democrat president.

“My vote is useless,” he began, before declaring, “I think Biden’s better than Trump because he sends rockets to Ukraine. Heil Ukraine! Heil Azov!”

By “Heil Azov,” Pohlhaus was referring to Ukraine’s Azov regiment, a neo-Nazi militia formally incorporated into the Ukrainian National Guard in 2014, and destroyed by Russian forces in the siege of Mariupol last year. The regiment fights in uniforms adorned with Nazi symbols – including the wolfsangel (wolf’s hook) rune and the Sonnenrad’, or ‘Black Sun’ – and two of its spokesmen said in 2015 that up to half of the regiment’s members were Nazis.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has called the Azov regiment “heroes.”

Behind Pohlhaus in the video stood Kent ‘Boneface’ McClellan, a Floridian Nazi who fought with the Azov regiment and other extremist militias in Ukraine. In an interview last year, McClellan admitted to participating in atrocities in the Donbass region, and claimed that the CIA helped him join the regiment.

Many online right-wing commentators have proclaimed Pohlhaus a “fed,” and Blood Tribe a government-run entrapment operation. The organization has been active since 2021 and has shown up at more mainstream right-wing protests throughout this year, for example performing Nazi salutes at a ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’ event in Ohio in March. Conservatives picketing the LGBTQ event say that the neo-Nazis showed up to tarnish their image.

According to a report by the Maine Wire, Pohlhaus co-owns a property in the state with Fred Ramey, a former Democratic Party activist who campaigned for current Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg when he ran for president in 2020. Pohlhaus had federal drug charges against him dismissed with no explanation in 2012, while Ramey’s criminal record was redacted in the early 2000s.

Local law enforcement view Blood Tribe as attention-seeking troublemakers. “We know these groups demonstrate in high profile areas in order to agitate and incite people with antisemitic symbols and slurs,” the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “They are looking for attention, and specifically media attention.” (RT)

[Edge Guerrero]

‘Blood Tribe’ leader comes out in support of Biden for 2024

https://www.azerbaycan24.com/en/blood-t ... -for-2024/


The open neo-Nazi has praised Kiev’s extremist Azov regiment at a march near Disney World in Florida Christopher Pohlhaus leads a neo-Nazi rally in Orlando, Florida, September 2, 2023 © Getty images / Stephanie Keith



The leader of a flamboyant white supremacist group has told US media that he supports current US President Joe Biden over his predecessor Donald Trump because “he sends rockets to Ukraine.” Police say the group is “looking for attention.”

Former US Marine Christopher Pohlhaus, who refers to himself online as ‘The Hammer’, led a march of several dozen ‘Blood Tribe’ members in the Orlando area on Saturday. Dressed in red and black and waving swastika banners, Pohlhaus’ crew performed Nazi salutes at passing traffic and shouted “Heil Hitler.”

The gathering drew the attention of local media, with independent reporter Brendan Gutenschwager stopping to interview Pohlhaus. Despite President Joe Biden describing white supremacy as “the most lethal terrorist threat in the homeland,” Pohlhaus expressed support for the Democrat president.

Region 04/09/2023 20:26Share Whatsapp Telegram Twitter Facebook A+ A-
‘Blood Tribe’ leader comes out in support of Biden for 2024

Christopher Pohlhaus leads a neo-Nazi rally in Orlando, Florida, September 2, 2023 © Getty images / Stephanie Keith

The open neo-Nazi has praised Kiev’s extremist Azov regiment at a march near Disney World in Florida Christopher Pohlhaus leads a neo-Nazi rally in Orlando, Florida, September 2, 2023 © Getty images / Stephanie Keith

The leader of a flamboyant white supremacist group has told US media that he supports current US President Joe Biden over his predecessor Donald Trump because “he sends rockets to Ukraine.” Police say the group is “looking for attention.”

Former US Marine Christopher Pohlhaus, who refers to himself online as ‘The Hammer’, led a march of several dozen ‘Blood Tribe’ members in the Orlando area on Saturday. Dressed in red and black and waving swastika banners, Pohlhaus’ crew performed Nazi salutes at passing traffic and shouted “Heil Hitler.”

The gathering drew the attention of local media, with independent reporter Brendan Gutenschwager stopping to interview Pohlhaus. Despite President Joe Biden describing white supremacy as “the most lethal terrorist threat in the homeland,” Pohlhaus expressed support for the Democrat president.

“My vote is useless,” he began, before declaring, “I think Biden’s better than Trump because he sends rockets to Ukraine. Heil Ukraine! Heil Azov!”

By “Heil Azov,” Pohlhaus was referring to Ukraine’s Azov regiment, a neo-Nazi militia formally incorporated into the Ukrainian National Guard in 2014, and destroyed by Russian forces in the siege of Mariupol last year. The regiment fights in uniforms adorned with Nazi symbols – including the wolfsangel (wolf’s hook) rune and the Sonnenrad’, or ‘Black Sun’ – and two of its spokesmen said in 2015 that up to half of the regiment’s members were Nazis.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has called the Azov regiment “heroes.”

Behind Pohlhaus in the video stood Kent ‘Boneface’ McClellan, a Floridian Nazi who fought with the Azov regiment and other extremist militias in Ukraine. In an interview last year, McClellan admitted to participating in atrocities in the Donbass region, and claimed that the CIA helped him join the regiment.

Many online right-wing commentators have proclaimed Pohlhaus a “fed,” and Blood Tribe a government-run entrapment operation. The organization has been active since 2021 and has shown up at more mainstream right-wing protests throughout this year, for example performing Nazi salutes at a ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’ event in Ohio in March. Conservatives picketing the LGBTQ event say that the neo-Nazis showed up to tarnish their image.

According to a report by the Maine Wire, Pohlhaus co-owns a property in the state with Fred Ramey, a former Democratic Party activist who campaigned for current Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg when he ran for president in 2020. Pohlhaus had federal drug charges against him dismissed with no explanation in 2012, while Ramey’s criminal record was redacted in the early 2000s.

Local law enforcement view Blood Tribe as attention-seeking troublemakers. “We know these groups demonstrate in high profile areas in order to agitate and incite people with antisemitic symbols and slurs,” the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “They are looking for attention, and specifically media attention.” (RT)

- They posted that on sherdog! Looks like the guy fought for Ukraine years ago too.

[Edge Guerrero]

Russian strike on crowded Ukraine market leaves at least 17 dead
Moscow targets cities with missiles as US secretary of state Antony Blinken makes surprise visit to Kyiv

A Russian strike has hit a crowded market in the Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, killing at least 17 people, as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was in Kyiv for an unannounced visit, his first for a year to the Ukrainian capital.

Ukrainian officials said a further 32 people were wounded in the attack, one of Russia’s deadliest attacks in months, 12 miles (19km) from the frontlines in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

Video of the aftermath showed fires raging in destroyed buildings and soldiers carrying body bags away from the scene. The Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said a child was among those killed.

“A regular market. Shops. A pharmacy. People who did nothing wrong. Many wounded,” the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, wrote in a post on Telegram. He called the strike “a terrorist attack” and said in a later press conference that it reflected the situation on the battlefield. “Whenever there are any positive advances by Ukrainian defence forces in that direction, Russians always target civilian people and civilian objects.”

Russia also targeted Kyiv with ballistic missiles in the hours prior to Blinken’s arrival, with loud booms audible in the Ukrainian capital shortly before 6am, as the secretary of state’s train was approaching.

“It was clearly meant as a greeting to Blinken,” Mykhailo Podolyak, a key adviser to Zelenskiy, told the Guardian. “Russia is constantly showing that it will not abide by any rules,” Podolyak added.

He said Russia had used Iskander missiles in the Kyiv attack, which was thwarted by Ukrainian air defences. Falling debris damaged building but there were no casualties, officials said.

Blinken met his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, in Kyiv and held discussions with Zelenskiy. The two-day visit will include an overnight stay in the Ukrainian capital.

While Blinken was in Kyiv, the US announced a new package of military assistance, including $100m in financing for Ukraine’s long-term requirements and $175m in arms and ammunition drawn from US stockpiles, which included depleted uranium shells for the US M1 Abrams tanks that are due to be delivered by the end of this year.

Depleted uranium shells are effective in piercing armour, but concerns have been raised over the incidence of cancer and birth defects in areas where they have been used. Because they have not definitively been identified as the cause, they are not banned under international law.

The arms package also included components for air defence systems, guided multiple launch rocket systems, 155mm artillery and 105mm artillery ammunition.

“I’m here in large part at the behest of President Biden to reaffirm our commitment to stand with you – to stand with you to help ensure that you succeed militarily in dealing with the aggression, but also to stand with you to make sure that your efforts to build a strong economy and a strong democracy succeed,” Blinken said, in remarks before a meeting with Shmyhal.

The visit comes shortly after Zelenskiy fired his defence minister, and as Ukraine’s military counteroffensive grinds on in the south-east of the country. On Wednesday Ukraine’s parliament approved the appointment of Rustem Umerov as the new defence minister. He replaces Oleksii Reznikov, who was sacked after a number of corruption scandals linked to the defence ministry. Reznikov is tipped to become ambassador to Britain.

Umerov was tasked with negotiations with Russia in the early stages of the war, before heading the state property fund, Ukraine’s main privatisation agency. “He has an impeccable reputation, and all political circles respect him,” said Podolyak. “He’s a consensus candidate, which is important.”

In a statement posted to Facebook, Umerov promised to do “everything possible and impossible” to bring about Ukraine’s victory, saying: “42 million Ukrainians stand behind every solider. Behind every soldier is a ministry that will do everything to protect and provide for all our people.”

Unnamed western officials have criticised the speed and tactics of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which has irritated Ukrainian officials. The offensive has proceeded more slowly than expected, partly due to the extensive fortifications and minefields that Russian forces have built to defend their lines.

“I understand that the further away you are from the war, sitting in your office, the better you understand the war, and if you’re 10,000km away then it’s the best place to understand what is happening,” said Podolyak, in a sarcastic aside.

He criticised western officials who saw the war as “arrows on a map” rather than in terms of human lives, but said in recent months there had been an increased understanding of the task Ukraine faced in pushing through Russian lines.

One senior western official said in a briefing to journalists on Wednesday that Ukraine was making “incremental but methodical progress” on parts of the southern and eastern fronts but accepted it was “slower than expected a couple of months ago”.

This was due to the heavier than expected minefield belt laid by the Russians on the frontline, at times forcing Ukrainian soldiers to dismount and “crawl on their bellies to get through”, meaning that the pace of advance has been at best a few hundred metres a day.

An unnamed US official told Reuters that Blinken wanted to get a first-hand assessment of the counteroffensive during the trip. “What’s most important is that we get a real assessment from the Ukrainians themselves,” the official said. “We want to see, hear how they intend to push forward in the coming weeks.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/06/russian-strike-on-crowded-ukraine-market-leaves-many-dead-blinken-visit