Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday that the leader of Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, is no longer in Belarus but back in Russia. Prigozhin agreed to move to neighboring Belarus after staging a failed rebellion against Russian defense officials. “As for Prigozhin, he is in St. Petersburg. He is not on the territory of Belarus,” Lukashenko told the country’s state-owned BelTA news agency, adding that Prigozhin arrived in Belarus June 27 but has since left. The Washington Post could not independently verify his claims.
In Ukraine, the death toll from a rocket attack in the western city of Lviv rose to at least four, with 34 people injured, regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi said on Telegram Thursday, after explosions rocked the city. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi called it the largest attack on civilian infrastructure in the city since the war began. Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, also decried the attack, sharing a video of the damage and labeling it “another night terror” that “targeted civilians far from the front lines.”
Here’s the latest on the war and its impact across the globe.
While both sides dialed up the rhetoric, an analysis published Tuesday by the Institute for the Study of War said it was unlikely that Moscow would create a nuclear disaster. The escalation in provocative statements is probably intended to accuse Ukraine of irresponsible behavior near the plant as NATO readies to meet next week, the D.C.-based think tank said.
Read More:Russia-Ukraine war news: Belarus leader says Wagner’s Prigozhin in Russia; four dead in Lviv attack
2023-07-06 08:56:00