The man leading Ukraine's federal investigations into war crimes says his team has recorded 98,000 offences by Russian forces since the start of the war. Mr Barros also said available satellite imagery suggests Wagner has indeed surrendered its heavy equipment to the Russian defence ministry, as it promised when calling off June's short-lived rebellion. He says the pictures indicate "the vehicles parked there are primarily cars, trucks, semi-trucks, buses and a limited number of mine-resistant armoured personnel carriers." Mr Barros runs the ISW's intelligence team looking at satellite imagery collected, and has been analysing these pictures from US-based satellite company MAXAR. "There is no indication that the Wagner group in Belarus actually has the material necessary to be able to mount a serious attack," says the ISW's Russia analyst George Barros. The ISW echoes that stance, saying Wagner does not pose any "serious threat" to Poland or Ukraine. Just yesterday, US national security spokesman John Kirby said the White House was not aware of any specific threat posed by Wagner to Poland or any NATO country. The Institute for the Study of War thinktank has prepared this map outlining where Wagner forces are believed to be based and training.Īs you can see, there's a confirmed Wagner exercise location in the city of Brest, which is Belarus's sixth-largest city, home to just over 300,000 people.Ĭonsidering the outskirts of Brest are within several hundred metres of the Polish border, Poland might have reason to be concerned.īut the reaction of Poland, Latvia and Lithuania has been criticised by some as overcautious and reactionary. Latvia and Lithuania have also joined Poland in threatening to shut their borders with Belarus. Poland has sent over 1,000 troops to its 250-mile eastern border with Belarus over the Wagner threat, vowing to send even more after two Belarusian helicopters were reported in Polish airspace yesterday. The presence of Wagner in Belarus has caused jitters in neighbouring NATO states. In May, Russian prime minister Mikhail Mishustin said the Kremlin had given passports to almost 1.5 million people in annexed parts of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia since last October. The Kremlin has consistently denied allegations of war crimes in Ukraine by forces taking part in a "special military operation" it says was launched to "de-Nazify" its neighbour and protect Russia. One of the lead researchers, Nathaniel Raymond from the Yale School of Public Health, said Russia appears to breaking international humanitarian law. It added the practice has been made possible by a series of decrees signed by President Putin, slowly forcing Ukrainians to get Russian passports. The report says those who do not seek Russian citizenship "are subjected to threats, intimidation, restrictions on humanitarian aid and basic necessities, and possible detention or deportation – all designed to force them to become Russian citizens." Researchers at Yale University say residents in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions are being targeted in a "systemtic effort to strip them of Ukrainian identity." Ukrainians in Russian-occupied territory are facing detention or deportation unless they agree to take Russian citizenship, according to a new report. See our 7.18pm post for our international correspondent John Sparks' take on why the Izmail port was a target. That's just shy of the 50,000 tonnes of free grain President Putin promised to six African countries at a summit in St Petersburg last week. Ukraine claims last night's attack destroyed almost 40,000 tonnes of grain that had been destined for China, Israel and parts of Africa. Not only for Ukraine, but also for all those in the world whose stability Russia is trying to destroy by attacking our ports and infrastructure." Mr Zelenskyy added: "It is very important for the world not to get used to this Russian terror. Most of those have been aimed at ports around Odesa, but last night's attack hit the port city of Izmail, within a kilometre of the Ukraine-Romania border. Russia has launched a number of missiles at Ukraine's Black Sea ports in the past fortnight, ever since it pulled out of a key grain deal on 17 July. They need a price crisis, they need disruptions in supplies," he said. "In their madness, they need world food markets to collapse, He's accused Russia of "waging a battle for a global catastrophe" by targeting grain storage facilities. President Zelenskyy's nightly addresses have become a fixture since Russia launched its invasion - and his latest one covers Moscow's repeated attacks on Ukrainian ports.
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