🔴 Live: Russia conducts fighter jet drills over Baltic Sea

Issued on: 27/06/2023 – 08:53

9:00am: ‘History in the making’ as Wagner’s Prigozhin confronts the Kremlin

Wagner boss Yevgeni Prigozhin was declared a “traitor” by Russian President Vladimir Putin for marching his troops towards Moscow over the weekend.

He was then ostensibly granted an amnesty and allowed to go into exile in Belarus. But Prigozhin is still under investigation, say Russian news agencies.

FRANCE 24’s Leela Jacinto explains the chaos and stakes in Russia today.

5:20am: Russia conducts tactical fighter jet drills over Baltic Sea

Russia’s defence ministry said early on Tuesday that it was conducting tactical fighter jet exercises over the Baltic Sea with the main goal of testing readiness to perform combat and special tasks operations. 

“The crews of the Su-27 (fighter jets) of the Baltic Fleet fired from airborne weapons at cruise missiles and mock enemy aircraft,” the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

“The main goal of the exercise is to test the readiness of the flight crew to perform combat and special tasks as intended.”

The ministry said that in addition to improving skills, the fighter jets crews are on “round-the-clock combat duty” guarding the air space of Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.

5:00am: Senior Russian lawmaker calls for professional army of seven million

A senior Russian lawmaker who has been involved in a number of negotiations related to Moscow’s campaign in Ukraine called late on Monday for a professional army seven-million strong to ensure that no mercenary groups are needed for the country’s security. 

Russia has been shaken by the weekend’s failed mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenary troops who briefly took control of a military command steering Moscow’s campaign in Ukraine, then started a march on Moscow before aborting it.

Lawmaker Leonid Slutsky, who early in the 16-month war took part in peace negotiations with Ukraine, said that Russia needs a contract army of at least seven million military and civilian personnel, on top of the current conscript army. 

“The country does not need any PMCs (private military companies) and their likes,” Slutsky, the head of the Liberal Democratic Party, said on the Telegram messaging app. “There are problems in the regular army, but PMCs cannot solve them.”

3:42am: Zelensky visits troops, says Ukraine counteroffensive ‘made progress’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday made a trip to troops fighting Russian forces near the city of Bakhmut, the site of some of the most intense battles in the conflict, and touted his force’s military progress.

“Today, our soldiers made progress in all areas, and this is a happy day,” Zelensky said Monday in his regular evening address.

Military leaders said their forces were making progress in the south and east of the country. 

“We are knocking the enemy out of its positions on the flanks of the city of Bakhmut,” eastern ground force commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said. “Ukraine is regaining its territory. We are moving forward.”

12:30am: Putin confirms Russian pilots killed during aborted mutiny

President Vladimir Putin on Monday paid tribute to pilots who were killed during the failed weekend mutiny, confirming earlier reports by military bloggers that several planes were shot down by Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner militia. 

Wagner fighters on Saturday took control of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and its military command centre steering the Ukraine campaign, then driving an armed convoy within 200 km (125 miles) of Moscow before aborting their insurrection.

“The courage and self-sacrifice of the fallen heroes-pilots saved Russia from tragic devastating consequences,” Putin said in his first public address about the mutiny since the weekend events.

There has been no official information about how many pilots died or how many aircraft were shot down.

Key developments from Monday, June 26:

Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the nation about Wagner’s aborted rebellion on Monday, thanking soldiers and mercenaries for avoiding bloodshed and stating that Wagner mutineers could either join the army or “go to Belarus”.

Earlier, the mercenary group’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin defended his actions in an audio statement, claiming he did not aim to overthrow the leadership of Russia but to “avoid the destruction of Wagner”.

Putin also accused Ukraine and its Western allies of wanting Russians to “kill each other” during a revolt by mercenaries of the Wagner Group, which stunned the country with an aborted march on Moscow over the weekend.

President Joe Biden declared Monday that the United States and NATO had played no part in the Wagner mercenary group’s short-lived insurrection in Russia, calling the uprising and the longer-term challenges it poses for President Vladimir Putin’s power “a struggle within the Russian system.”

Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how all the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)