Latest in Ukraine: Pardoned Convicts Likely to Keep Wagner Jobs, UK Says

Latest developments:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed Ukraine’s ambassador to Britain. The ambassador had publicly criticized Zelenskyy’s response to remarks from outgoing British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace that Ukraine should show more gratitude for weapons from its allies. However, the president’s office has not stated the reason for Vadym Prystaiko’s dismissal.
Belarus says its military is training with fighters from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group at a site near the Belarus-Poland border.
European Union foreign ministers met Thursday to discuss a proposed four-year, $22.4 billion military aid plan for Ukraine.

The last of the Wagner Group’s convict-prisoner mercenaries are due to be released from their mandated service “in the coming days,” the British Defense Ministry said Friday.

In the ministry’s daily intelligence report about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it said “a significant number” of the pardoned convicts will “likely” continue with Wagner as professional contractors. Russia now controls Wagner’s prison recruitment pipeline, according to the ministry.

The Wagner Group grew to become the organization that staged a mutiny against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority last month.

The end of the Wagner Group’s prison recruitment program marks one of the bloodiest episodes in modern military history, the British ministry said, with as many as 20,000 convict-recruits killed in a few months.

CIA Director William Burns said Thursday at the Aspen Security Forum, a U.S. national security and foreign policy conference, that the mutiny was a “very complicated dance,” and Putin is likely biding his time until he can decide how to extract revenge from Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Wagner Group. “In my experience, Putin is the ultimate apostle of payback so I would be surprised if Prigozhin escapes further retribution,” Burns said.

Late Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address that Russia has used almost 70 missiles “of various types” against Ukraine since Monday “and to a significant extent – against Odesa and Odesa region, Mykolaiv, our other southern cities and communities.”

Unfortunately, he said, “our defenders of the sky” were unable “to protect the entire Ukrainian sky,” but Ukraine is working to obtain other air defense systems.

Russia attacked Ukraine’s southern cities with drones and missiles for a third consecutive night Thursday, particularly targeting Odesa, the country’s key Black Sea port.

Two people were killed in Odesa and at least 19 injured in Mykolaiv, a city close to the Black Sea, Ukrainian officials said.

In recent days, Russia has focused its attacks on Ukraine’s critical grain export infrastructure after Moscow ended its support for safe passage of Ukrainian grain exports past Russian war ships on the Black Sea.

Moscow has also vowed “retribution” this week for Ukraine’s attack on a crucial bridge linking Russia to Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the recent Russian attacks.

“These attacks are also having an impact well beyond Ukraine. We are already seeing the negative effect on global wheat and corn prices which hurts everyone, but especially vulnerable people in the global south,” his spokesman said in a statement.

The Russian military described its hits on Odesa as “retaliatory.”

Regional Ukrainian governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram that one airstrike hit the center of Mykolaiv, and that the wounded there included five children. Kim added that two people were rescued from the rubble.

Oleksandr Snkevych, Mykolaiv’s mayor, said the strike damaged at least five high-rise buildings as well as several garages.

Russia has targeted Odesa and Mykolaiv with aerial attacks multiple times this week.

“Russian terrorists continue their attempts to destroy the life of our country,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

Meanwhile, Russia-installed officials in Crimea said a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and damaged multiple administrative buildings in the northwestern part of the peninsula.

More US Sanctions

The U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday it has imposed new Russia-related sanctions, targeting 18 individuals and dozens of organizations to block Moscow’s access to products that support its war against Ukraine.

In a statement, Treasury said the measures are designed to “reduce Russia’s revenue from the metals and mining sector, undermine its future energy capabilities and degrade Russia’s access to the international financial system.”

VOA national security correspondent Jeff Seldin, VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb and VOA’s Anna Chernikova in Kyiv contributed to this story. Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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