Cincunri Sakia

Kamis, 24 Agustus 2023

Prigozhin plane crash: What happened? - Sky News

A private jet with 10 people on board has crashed in Russia - with the man who led a short-lived mutiny against the country's top brass on the passenger list.

Russian authorities said Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin boarded the flight, though there has been no absolute confirmation of his death.

The Russian news agency Interfax said 10 bodies had been recovered from the site.

Footage from the scene - about 185 miles north of Moscow - shows flames leaping from the wreckage.

Here's what we know so far.

What happened?

A private Embraer Legacy aircraft was travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg when it crashed.

Russian authorities said there were no survivors.

Russian state-owned TASS news agency reported seven passengers and three crew were on board the Embraer aircraft and were all killed.

According to Reuters, there are reports they were attending a meeting with officials from Russia's defence ministry.

A Telegram channel affiliated with the Wagner Group has said Prigozhin was killed in the plane crash. It called him a hero and a patriot who had died at the hands of unidentified people described as "traitors to Russia".

The plane came down near the village of Kuzhenkino Tver - and unconfirmed reports suggest it belonged to Prigozhin.

Who was on board?

A list of those on board has been published by Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency.

Russia's civil aviation authority said Prigozhin was on the passenger list, and later added that he was travelling with Wagner commander Dmitry Utkin.

Utkin was Prigozhin's right-hand man - a shadowy figure covered in Nazi tattoos including a swastika and lightning bolts.

Prigozhin's security chief Valeriy Chekalov was also said to be on the flight - with the other four passengers named as Sergey Propustin, Yevgeny Makaryan, Alexander Totmin and Nikolay Matuseev.

Sky's Moscow correspondent Diana Magnay says that, if the deaths are confirmed: "That is essentially the top echelons of the Wagner Group taken out in one fell swoop - and it is exactly two months to the day that Prigozhin launched his very short-lived mutiny."

The crew members on the doomed flight have been named as commander Aleksei Levshin, co-pilot Rustam Karimov and flight attendant Kristina Raspopova.

What could have caused the crash?

Our military analyst Sean Bell said plane crashes are traditionally in bad weather - and conditions were clear at the time.

Referring to footage of the incident, he added: "This aircraft looks as if it's completely out of control - it's spiralling down, there are vapour trails coming from it - all of which indicates it's had some sort of catastrophic failure in the air."

Magnay says there have been reports of a second plane behind the one that crashed that was zig-zagging through the sky.

Security and defence analyst Professor Michael Clarke says the way the plane came down doesn't indicate there was a bomb on board - but it did look like an aircraft that had been hit by something outside that did enough damage to wreck the controls.

Flightradar24 says data from the aircraft shows it descended sharply about 33 minutes into the flight.

Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin?

Once a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin founded Wagner - a private military company whose fighters were on the ground in Ukraine.

But in recent months, Prigozhin had been a vocal critic of Russia's defence ministry, as well as top generals, in their handling of the invasion.

He led a short-lived mutiny against the country's top military brass in June - and at the time, he was described by Mr Putin as a "traitor".

The rebellion ended when Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stepped in to broker a deal, with Prigozhin agreeing to relocate to Belarus.

What has happened since the rebellion?

Earlier this week, Prigozhin made a video address for the first time since the aborted mutiny.

Wearing camouflage and holding a rifle, he appeared to be in Africa - and talked about Russia making the continent "free".

Prigozhin spoke of how Wagner was tackling terrorist groups in the region, and "making life a nightmare for ISIS and al Qaeda and other bandits".

His mercenary group has been accused by the UN and other agencies of widespread human rights abuses.

Where is Vladimir Putin?

Amid reports that Prigozhin is dead, Mr Putin was attending a concert in Kursk.

The event is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Soviet troops' victory in the Battle of Kursk.

Soldiers joined the president on stage, with Mr Putin pinning medals on troops.

The Russian president has also been participating in the BRICS summit - appearing virtually alongside leaders from Brazil, India, China and South Africa.

What has been the reaction to the plane crash?

Boris Bondarev, a former Russian diplomat, told Sky News that the death of Prigozhin would benefit Mr Putin.

And Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer, said he believed such an incident involving the mercenary chief was "inevitable" following his failed revolt.

Mr Steele claims a contract had been put out on Prigozhin by members of Russia's business community in recent weeks.

Sean Bell has said the crash could be a ploy to let the Wagner boss live peacefully in exile.

"This might have been an engineered story for Prigozhin to slip quietly away and live in exile somewhere, under a wig and with a degree of privacy," he added.

US President Joe Biden, who is on holiday in California, has been briefed.

Adrienne Watson, America's national security spokesperson, said: "We have seen the reports. If confirmed, no one should be surprised."

And Alicia Kearns, who chairs the UK's Foreign Affairs Committee, told Sky News that the speed at which the Russian government confirmed Prigozhin was on the passenger list "should tell us everything we need to know".

Reports have suggested that the plane was shot down by Russian air defence forces, and the British MP says this suggests Mr Putin is "sending a very loud message".

A UK government spokesperson said the Foreign Office is "monitoring the situation closely".

Was this an act of revenge from Putin?

Many see Prigozhin's reported death as a response from the Kremlin to Wagner's brief armed rebellion against the Russian military.

General Lord Richard Dannatt, ex-chief of the British army, told Sky News Mr Putin was "most likely" behind the plane crash.

He added that even if it wasn't ordered by the Russian president himself, "it was by someone who knows what Putin would have wished".

Sky's international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn said "treason does not pay" and "Putin has never tolerated traitors".

"He will hope the presumed assassination will draw a line under that embarrassing mutiny and deter any other threats and that it will bolster his power which has been weakened by the failed coup."

What does this mean for the war in Ukraine?

Prof Clarke says that - if Prigozhin is dead - it will have a "marginal" effect on the conflict, but it will show that Russia is a "gangster state".

He explained: "It is run in a gangster way from the top, right through the very bottom with corruption down at the lowest possible level."

The security and defence analyst expects more details to emerge in the coming hours - and said caution is needed.

"It is not obvious he is dead at the moment, he probably is, but there is still some plausible idea this might be some sort of setup," he added.

The crash has been reported on Russian state television.

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2023-08-24 08:37:30Z
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Japan begins releasing Fukushima nuclear waste water into Pacific Ocean - The Independent

Japan has begun releasing treated radioactive waste water from its Fukushima nuclear plant, officials said on Thursday, despite controversy and diplomatic backlash from neighbouring countries over the move.

China’s foreign ministry firmly opposed the plan on Thursday and said that the disposal of the contaminated water in Fukushima “is a major nuclear safety issue with cross border implications” and added that it was “by no means a private matter for Japan alone”.

The release of the 1 million metric tonnes of treated radioactive water is a major step in the decommissioning procedure for the reactors, which suffered a triple meltdown due to the tsunami triggered by a March 2011 earthquake.

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (Tepco), the operator of the plant, commenced the water release at 1.03pm local time. Local media said that the initial release operations proceeded without any reported anomalies.

Over the next 17 days or so, Tepco will release about 7,800 tonnes of treated water into the ocean.

The Japanese government has maintained that the measure is necessary for the extensive work spanning decades aimed at decommissioning the facility.

Despite assurances by Japan and the approval of a two-year International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) investigation which deemed the water safe to release, some neighbouring countries have expressed scepticism over the plan, with Beijing emerging as the biggest critic.

The chief executive of Hong Kong, John Lee, said the release was “irresponsible” and posed “impossible risks to food safety and the irreparable pollution and destruction of the marine environment”.

On Wednesday, Beijing summoned the Japanese ambassador over the discharge of water.

“Vice foreign minister Sun Weidong summoned Japan’s ambassador to China, Hideo Tarumi, to make solemn representations regarding the Japanese government’s announcement that it would initiate the discharge of Fukushima’s nuclear-contaminated water into the sea,” a foreign ministry statement said on Wednesday.

The water has undergone treatment using the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), a method designed to eliminate radioactive elements except for tritium.

In the upcoming month, Tepco will conduct daily measurements of tritium levels near the water-release outlet about 1 kilometre off the coast.

“In addition to those who will actually handle the operations, we are preparing to release information without delay,” Junichi Matsumoto, the Tepco official in charge of the water-discharge project, said at a news conference before the process started, Asahi Shimbun reported.

“We would like to proceed with a great sense of urgency,” he added.

Earlier, the Japanese government upheld the neutrality of the final report from the United Nations nuclear agency, which maintained that Japan’s water release plan adhered to international safety norms.

Japanese authorities also refuted claims that the country exerted pressure on the IAEA to release solely positive findings, denying any allegations of bias.

On Thursday, however, Greenpeace said that the radiological risks have not been fully assessed and that the biological impacts of tritium, carbon-14, strontium-90 and iodine-129 – to be released with the water – “have been ignored”.

The process of water disposal is a lengthy endeavour that will span decades, involving continuous filtration and dilution, in addition to the planned decommissioning of the plant.

Tepco said that the process of the waste water discharge will be halted in the event of natural disasters or abnormalities.

Meanwhile, fishing communities in Fukushima have expressed opposition to the plan as well. In fact, polls have revealed that these concerns are widely shared among the general populace.

Masanobu Sakamoto, the leader of the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations, stated on Monday that while the group understands the potential scientific safety of the release, they remain concerned about the potential harm to their reputation.

In a recent Kyodo poll conducted over the weekend, 88.1 per cent of respondents expressed anxiety about the potential economic repercussions arising from the release. China and Hong Kong have already tightened their restrictions on imports.

South Korea on Wednesday stepped up protests against Japan, calling Tokyo’s plan to discharge water from the Fukushima plant an act of “terror”.

“We intend to hold the Yoon government responsible for failing to do its duties,” opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung said at a party meeting.

Additional reporting by agencies

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2023-08-24 07:58:11Z
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Ramaswamy, DeSantis, Pence: Who came out on top at the Republican debate? - BBC

By Anthony Zurcher in Wisconsin

North America correspondent

The first Republican presidential debate was a rowdy affair that saw the eight candidates leap headlong into heated exchanges.

There were some who thought it would be boring without Donald Trump - the ultimate showman - but that was decidedly not the case. The former president may have been the life of the party during primary debates back in 2016, but the eight rivals who travelled to Wisconsin proved they could bring some excitement without his help.

Some candidates stood out from the pack, however - and some seemed to languish on the side-lines.

Here's a rundown of the winners and losers.

WINNERS

Vivek Ramaswamy: The man who never ran for public office - and didn't even vote for a president from 2004 to 2020 - simply dominated this Republican debate.

With a broad smile and a quick tongue, he frequently seemed to be the only candidate on the stage who was enjoying himself. That may partly be because this political novice has exceeded expectations, and is essentially playing with house money while he takes centre stage.

He easily fended off swipes from his fellow candidates, suggesting that Mr Christie was auditioning for a show on left-leaning news channel MSNBC and that Ms Haley was angling for spots on the board of defence contractors with her positions on Ukraine.

"I'm the only person on the stage who isn't bought and paid for," he said during a discussion of climate change - prompting cries of outrage from his rivals.

Time and time again, Mr Ramaswamy positioned himself as the outsider against a bunch of political establishment insiders. Many of his views - calling on Ukraine to cede territory to Russia, using military force to secure the US-Mexico border, and banning US companies from doing business with China - are well outside the political mainstream even within the Republican Party. But as Mr Trump demonstrated in 2016, even outlandish, impractical policy proposals can be effective in generating attention.

Mr Ramaswamy may not have the political fuel to challenge Mr Trump for the nomination, and he may not even want to, but the evening's debate ensures that he's going to continue to be a factor in this race in the months ahead.

Mike Pence: The veteran politician, who has served as a congressman, a governor and a vice-president, has a bit of fight left in him.

Although his presidential campaign has been sputtering - hated by Trump supporters and distrusted by Trump critics - his debate-stage experience served him well on Wednesday night.

He went on the attack early, swiping at Mr Ramaswamy's inexperience, saying, "Now is not the time for on-the-job training".

He offered a passionate, religion-based call for nationwide abortion limits. That likely won't play well in next year's general election. But it could help him win over evangelical Republicans, who can tilt the balance in states like Iowa and South Carolina, which play an outsized role in deciding the party nominee.

During the second-half of the debate, when discussion of Mr Trump came up, Mr Pence had the last word, saying he put the Constitution first on January 6, 2021 when he refused to throw out the election results at Mr Trump's behest. Several of his rivals even spoke out in his favour.

The fundamental challenges to Mr Pence's campaign remain, but for at least one night he showed why he was once considered by many conservative Republicans to be presidential material.

Nikki Haley: The former US ambassador to the UN has made a habit of surprising those who underestimate her. She has never lost a race for office, even when she was challenging more established Republican candidates for the South Carolina governorship.

On Wednesday night, she stood out by offering sharp criticism early of both Mr Trump and the Republican Party as a whole.

"Republicans did this to you too," she said when describing the massive US budget deficit. "They need to stop the spending, stop the borrowing."

When the topic turned to the former president, she said Mr Trump was the "most disliked politician in America" - and warned the Republican Party will suffer because of it in the general election.

She also showed will for the fight. She scrapped with Mr Ramaswamy on continuing US aid to Ukraine, which she supports. And she clashed with Mr Pence on abortion, calling his demands for a national abortion ban unrealistic and politically damaging.

Even if she can't pull ahead in the pack this time around, her debate performance could position the 51-year-old for future presidential bids in election years not dominated by a former president.

MIDDLE OF THE PACK

Tim Scott and Chris Christie: Mr Christie did exactly what many expected him to. He took swipes at Mr Trump, had some choice lines targeting Mr Ramaswamy, and was generally feisty and combative.

He was also roundly booed when he was introduced, when he criticised Mr Trump, and when he took big swings at Mr Ramaswamy.

His choicest line came when he said the political neophyte "sounds like ChatGPT" - but that particular twist did nothing to ingratiate him with the crowd.

As for Tim Scott, his nice-guy attitude meant he frequently stayed above the fray during the most heated debate moments. That won't help him win over many voters, but it could burnish his credentials if he wants to be Mr Trump's vice-presidential pick.

LOSERS

Ron DeSantis: At the beginning of the year, the race for the Republican nomination seemed like it would be a two-man contest between Mr DeSantis and Mr Trump. Since then, the Florida governor has sagged in the polls.

If the rest of the Republican pack hasn't caught up to him yet, it may very well have him after this debate.

It wasn't a terrible performance - he had his moments, particularly when he spoke about his record of military service and his calls for more aggressive government policies to deal with the opioid epidemic.

He was on the side-lines for all the key moments of the debate, however. Mr Ramaswamy ran circles around him. Other candidates, like Mr Pence and Ms Haley, elbowed him out of the way on issues like abortion and US aid to Ukraine. He seemed on uneven footing when the topic turned to Mr Trump and his recent indictments.

This was not the kind of performance needed to close the gap with Mr Trump. The man who was once billed as the future of the Republican Party was simply a non-factor.

Asa Hutchinson and Doug Burgum: Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson was the last candidate to qualify for the Milwaukee debate. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum paid his way onto the stage with a gimmick - offering enough people $20 gift cards if they donated $1 to his campaign.

Both candidates desperately needed to show that they deserved to be there, and both were mostly afterthoughts.

Mr Hutchinson's criticisms of Mr Trump seemed weak sauce compared to Mr Christie's more pointed attacks. And Mr Burgum's awe-shucks small-state conservatism never really stood out.

The qualification standards become more rigorous for next month's primary debate in California, and neither candidate did enough on Wednesday night to build the kind of support they will need to make another appearances on the debate stage likely.

Rabu, 23 Agustus 2023

Russia-Ukraine war live: three drones downed in Moscow region, says mayor; Russia attacks Danube grain facilities - The Guardian

From 3h ago

A drone hit a building under construction in central Moscow early on Wednesday, the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has said, in what AFP reported was the sixth straight night of aerial attacks on Russia’s capital region.

The Russian military downed two more drones over the western part of the Moscow region, the mayor said on his Telegram channel.

A loud explosion was heard in the capital’s central district on Wednesday morning, a short while after flights were suspended at the city’s airports, Russia’s RIA news agency reported. The central district is 5km from the Kremlin.

Police officers stand outside a damaged building in the Moscow-City business center after a drone reportedly fell.

The Russian defence ministry said that the drone had been “suppressed by electronic warfare” before losing control and colliding with the building.

“At night, air defence forces thwarted another attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack by three aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles on the city of Moscow,” the ministry said. There were no casualties, it said.

In addition to the Moscow city attack, two drones were “destroyed by air defence systems” in Moscow’s Mozhaisk and Khimki districts, it said.

The UK is due to proscribe the Wagner mercenary group as a terrorist group within weeks, the Financial Times has been told.

The home secretary, Suella Braverman, is poised to make the announcement, with officials having finalised the legal case for proscription, the outlet’s whitehall editor Lucy Fisher tweeted.

The UK imposed sanctions on the head of the group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in 2020 and on the group itself in March 2022, immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in which Wagner has played a large part.

Prigozhin led a mutiny in June which he said aimed to settle scores with Russia’s military leaders rather than topple Vladimir Putin. Belarus then brokered an end to the mutiny.

Russia has appointed a new acting head of its aerospace forces to replace Sergei Surovikin, nicknamed “General Armageddon”, the RIA state news agency reported on Wednesday.

In June, US intelligence claimed that Surovikin, who previously led the invasion force in Ukraine, had prior knowledge of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s uprising, in which Wagner group mercenaries captured the city of Rostov and moved on Moscow before cutting an amnesty deal.

Since the mutiny, some Russian and foreign news outlets have said that Surovikin was being investigated for possible complicity in it and being held under house arrest.

Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Sergei Surovikin in December 2022.

His reported removal suggests the authorities found fault with his behaviour, but the details of his alleged wrongdoing remain unknown.

Russian news outlet RBC and Rybar, a Telegram channel close to the ministry of defence, on Tuesday reported that Surovikin had been removed from his position as the head of Russia’s air force, Reuters reports.

On Wednesday, RIA cited an unnamed source as saying:

Ex-chief of the Russian Air and Space Forces Sergei Surovikin has now been relieved of his post, while colonel-general Viktor Afzalov, head of the main staff of the airforce, is temporarily acting as commander-in-chief of the airforce”.

The report has not yet been independently verified. Surovikin was nicknamed “General Armageddon” for his hardline and unorthodox approach to waging war.

You can read more about Surovikin in this profile piece:

In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that, as of mid-August, Russian forces were continuing to employ pontoon bridges at Chonhar and Henichesk crossing points, on the border between southern Ukraine and occupied Crimea.

Russia seized and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, eight years before launching its full-scale invasion of the country.

The MoD wrote on X:

Both permanent bridges sustained damage from Ukrainian precision strikes in early August 2023.

The pontoon bridges are unlikely to be able to fully sustain the flow of heavy vehicles carrying ammunition and weaponry to the front.

The resulting bottlenecks mean Russian forces are partially reliant on a long diversion via Armiansk, northern Crimea. This is adding further friction to Russia’s logistics network in the south.

UK government support for Ukraine’s nuclear fuel supply will help end the country’s reliance on Russian supplies, Grant Shapps said after a trip to a Ukrainian power station.

The government has announced its intention to provide a £192m loan guarantee through UK Export Finance – the UK’s export credit agency – enabling UK-headquartered Urenco to supply Ukraine’s national nuclear company, Energoatom, with uranium enrichment services, which are vital for nuclear fuel.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said that, once provided, the support will bring the UK’s non-military financial assistance to Ukraine close to £5bn, PA media reports.

Ukraine has four nuclear power plants, with its largest plant, at Zaporizhzhia, currently held by Russia.

Before Russia launched its full-scale invasion last year, Ukraine had been receiving most of its nuclear services and fuel from Russia.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said on Tuesday that three civilians were killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on a sanatorium in the village of Lavy, close to the Ukrainian border.

The governor said two people had died on the spot and doctors had been unable to save the life of the third. These claims have not yet been independently verified.

Ukrainian air defences shot down 11 out of 20 drones launched by Russia in overnight attacks, the air force said on Wednesday.

The Ukrainian military and local officials said Russia carried out attacks in the southern region of Odesa and in the Danube River area, which is important for grain exports, reportedly causing a fire in at least one grain facility (see post at 06.23).

The military published photographs – which have not yet been independently verified -showing piles of grain under the burnt shell of a storage facility, Reuters reports.

Odesa governor Oleh Kiper said the attack on the region lasted for three hours.

“Unfortunately, there were hits to the production and transhipment complexes where a fire broke out... The damage includes grain storage facilities,” Kiper said on Telegram.

Ukraine’s Danube ports accounted for around a quarter of grain exports before Russia pulled out of a UN-backed deal to provide safe passage for the export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea in July.

The ports have since become the main route out, with grain also sent on barges to Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta for shipment onwards.

Hello everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the blog until 3pm (UK time). Please do feel free to get in touch on Twitter if you have any story tips.

Reuters: the Netherlands will send Ukraine a thousand chargers for remote demining, Dutch defence minister Kajsa Ollongren said on a visit to Kyiv.

The announcement coincides with heavily mined Russian defence lines slowing down a Ukrainian counteroffensive to recapture territory seized by Russia since its forces invaded in February 2022.

“There is a decision to provide about a thousand portable chargers for remote demining that can make passageways in engineered barriers,” Ollongren was quoted as saying on the Ukrainian defence ministry website at a meeting with Ukrainian minister Oleksiy Reznikov on Tuesday.

“Now, as I know, you are facing the problem of extremely dense mining of territories,” she said.

Russia attacked grain facilities in Odesa and the Danube River region overnight, causing fires in grain facilities, Ukrainian military and local authorities said on Wednesday.

“The enemy hit grain storage facilities and a production and transshipment complex in Danube region. A fire broke out in the warehouses and was quickly contained. Firefighters continue to work,” military said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Russian military downed two more drones over the western part of the Moscow region, the mayor said on his Telegram channel.

The Russian defence ministry said that the drone had been “suppressed by electronic warfare” before losing control and colliding with the building.

In addition to the Moscow city attack, two drones were “destroyed by air defence systems” in Moscow’s Mozhaisk and Khimki districts, it said.

Welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.

Our top story this morning: A drone hit a building under construction in central Moscow early on Wednesday, the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has said, in what AFP reported was the sixth straight night of aerial attacks on Russia’s capital region.