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Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the paramilitary Wagner Group that has fought alongside the Russian military in the war in Ukraine, admitted that the "meat grinder" battle for Bakhmut is far from over. -snip- Prigozhin, a Russian businessman, told The Moscow Times, an independent newspaper based in Amsterdam, that his troops "will not be celebrating in the near future" as the battle pushes on. He said Ukraine's military has become more active in the city, pulling in "more and more new reserves" to fight to prevent a Russian breakthrough. Up to 500 new fighters have become engaged in Bakhmut each...

His private army is pushing hard to give Russia a battlefield win in Ukraine, but mounting evidence suggests the Kremlin has moved to curb what it sees as the excessive political clout of Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia's Wagner mercenary group. Prigozhin, a 61-year-old ex-convict, has grabbed headlines in recent months over his bloody role in Ukraine and is sometimes portrayed in the West as a real-life James Bond villain. Shaven-headed and fond of coarse language, he has made a splash in Russian-language media too where he has revelled in being sanctioned by the West, publicly insulted Russia's top military...

Russians are fleeing Crimea amid fears that Ukraine will soon move to recapture the region that Vladimir Putin illegally annexed in 2014, according to local media reports. Emil Ibragimov, the head of the Crimean project and educational platform Q-Hub, told Radio NV in a video published on Friday that Russians are fleeing from Crimea to the neighboring Russian region of Krasnodar because they fear Ukraine will eventually liberate the Black Sea peninsula. Ibragimov said that many Russian citizens who settled in Crimea after it was occupied eight years ago had already left. -snip- His remarks coincide with an assessment by...

Russia removed a top military commander in Ukraine following criticism from some of President Vladimir Putin’s top allies over the officer’s responsibility for a recent chaotic retreat in the country’s northeast that underscored Russian weaknesses on the battlefield. Col. Gen. Alexander Lapin, responsible for the Central Military District, Russia’s largest, was the last of Russia’s regional commanders still in place amid Moscow’s faltering invasion. It was unclear whether he had been suspended or removed from his post. Gen. Lapin was the top Russian commander for a part of Ukraine’s northeast that Kyiv’s forces retook in a lightning offensive in September....

Footage showed thousands of Russian conscripts shouting at Major-General Kirill Kulakov at a training base in Kazan, a city in Russia, with some yelling 'let's go home'. Russian marines have said their 'incompetent' generals are treating them as 'cannon fodder' after their unit suffered devastating losses, with 300 men reportedly killed or wounded in four days of heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine. Marines from Russia's 155th Naval Infantry Brigade wrote a scathing letter to their regional governor, claiming they had lost 300 servicemen in a four-day massacre in Pavlivka thanks to the catastrophic planning of Generals Rustam Muradov and Zurab...

Massive explosions have been seen hitting a key naval port in annexed Crimea that Russia claim was targeted in a major Ukrainian drone assault. Russian Black Sea warships were reportedly having to fight the attack off in Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea which was annexed from Ukraine in 2014. According to Ukrainian sources, several of the Russian ships from the fleet were blown up. Local media are reporting that rescuers this morning are still attempting to put out a fire on one of the ships. Residents claimed that the huge explosions 'shook' their homes and windows while black smoke...

Russian conscripts are in revolt after being treated like 'cattle' and given 'no training' as they head to the war in Ukraine. A video shows the men publicly complaining about their treatment in 'brutal, absolutely appalling conditions' after they were mobilised by Vladimir Putin. The shocking footage is just the latest evidence of the total chaos over the Russian call-up of reservists that has left even Kremlin cheerleaders in despair. The desperate recruits risk punishment by venting their fury over their plight after arriving by train in Belgorod region which borders Ukraine. One of the soldiers, acting as a spokesman...

After Russia’s chaotic retreats in Kherson – less than a week after Vladimir Putin illegally annexed the Ukrainian province alongside three others – the region’s Moscow-appointed governor, Kirill Stremousov, sought to calm the mood. Far from a rout, the withdrawal was a tactical “regrouping” to “deliver a retaliatory blow”, Stremousov said on Wednesday. His comments – among the first public admissions of Russia’s retreats in Kherson – attempted to mask what even many vocal supporters of the war now say: the situation is the most dire the Russian army has found itself in since the start of the invasion seven...